Chuck vs The Little Sister
by Madje Knotts
Summary: Just to let everyone know, I'm posting this last chapter from my Ipod and so I can't seem to add my authors note or disclaimer. I don't own Chuck btw. So here's the last chapter 10b. Look for Chuck Vs. The Relationship Reassignment coming soon!
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: I do not own Chuck, Sarah, The Buy More, Emmet, General Beckman, or Casey, I have a stuffed Bear named Casey, but since it is a girl, and she doesn't like guns, it doesn't count. NBC, and Warner Brothers own Chuck, but if Chuck doesn't get renewed than they don't deserve that privilege. Any original idea is mine however._

A/N: I got this idea from Chuck Vs. The Wookie when Sarah makes a mention of her and her sister at the beach. The idea has stuck with me since, I don't know how good this will turn out, this is my first attempt, so please bear with me.

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February 17th 2009 Arlington National Cemetery Arlington VA

She couldn't believe it, her mother was dead. She fought back the tears that threatened to spill over. She knew people expected her to cry, but after years of keeping her face impassive, it was second nature to her.

"Are you okay?" she knew the voice that asked the question it was quiet and comforting and the touch on her shoulder was familiar and comforting too.

She nodded; she didn't trust herself to speak.

"No one would fault you if you cried," he said, her boyfriend was the sweetest person she knew, "not your mom, or anyone, Agent Burton." The truth of his statement hit close to home, he had joked since he met her that she had the posture and face of an agent, if only he knew.

"I know," she said at last, quietly, "I know, but I really don't want anyone to see me cry, I look really bad."

"Yeah, well, you look good to me anytime."

The graveyard was empty now, and she knew that she had to go her ride was waiting.

"Meet me at my house tonight," she said, "I'll be alone, and I really don't want to be alone tonight."

Three months later

**May 21****st**** 2009**

**Sarah's apartment**

**Burbank CA**

**9:45 am**

Sarah looked at the envelope in her hand again and blinked, it was addressed:

Jennifer L. Burton

Care of the CIA

Burbank CA.

Whoever had sent this envelope knew she was with the CIA and that she was living in Burbank; this wasn't good for her mission.

She considered not opening the envelope, but her gut feeling told her she needed to she who it was from, what it was about, and how the hell they knew she was with the CIA. She breathed deeply and opened the envelope; there was another envelope inside it, along with a note. She took the note out first it read.

_Dear Ms. Burton,_

_We are sorry to inform you of the death of your mother, Cheyenne Elizabeth Burton. In her will it states that you are the guardian of your sister Rachel Elizabeth Burton. We could not locate you until now, and your sister has been in foster care, she will be sent to LA on May the 21__st__ 2009. Please realize that her emotions are in a delicate state right now as she was in the car when it was hit by a drunk driver, immediately killing your mother, but leaving your sister uninjured. Enclosed is a letter from your mother and a copy of her will. Thank You_

_The law offices of Brown, Sands, and Huerst, Washington DC_

Sarah couldn't believe it, after years of not hearing from her mother, and now she was dead, she opened the other envelope and glanced at the will, it did indeed state that she now had guardianship of Rachel.

"Damn," she muttered to herself, guardianship of a 15 year old girl was not good for protecting an asset, especially one she cared for as much as she cared for Chuck. She took out the other piece of paper she recognized the handwriting instantly.

_To My Dearest Eldest Daughter_

_I know you still hate me for what happened all those years ago, but I have never stopped loving you. If you received this letter then that means I am dead and I never contacted you, I'm sorry. I've wanted to tell you sorry for years, you now get what you wanted all those years ago when your father and I divorced, it's yours. Please take good care of Rachel, she's not used to moving around so much, we've been in the same house we were in 15 years ago, we've never moved. If I'm dead it means that she is freaking out I'm sure of it, she was always so scared that something was going to happen to me. I don't know why she worried so much, but she did. She'll be taking this hard because we were also very, very, close. Please forgive dear Jenny, I only did what I thought I had to, I love you._

_Your mother_

_Cheyenne Elizabeth Burton_

Sarah's eyes misted up as she thought of her mother, she'd only been 13 when she and her father had left. She remembered clearly what had brought it on, but she buried it as soon as the memory began to emerge, she hadn't come this far and this long without the memory resurfacing for it to now come up when she was about to leave for her shift at the Orange Orange.

Her phone rang as she put the letters and will in the wall safe she had installed not long after moving to Burbank. She looked at the screen it was Casey.

"Walker, secure."

"Casey, secure, Beckman set up a briefing for fifteen minutes from now. Be there."

"Okay, I'm leaving now." Sarah said, and hung up.

**Orange Orange**

**Burbank CA**

**10 am**

She unlocked the door, slipped inside, and kept the sign to say it was closed. She went into the freezer and unlocked the door to Castle. Casey and Chuck were waiting for her. She said nothing to them and waited.

Beckman activated the video conferencing and addressed them. "Agents, Bartowski."

All three acknowledged her and waited, she continued. "I am sending in another agent to help you with handling the asset, she already knows everything and is the most trustworthy agent on the field, she is CIA."

"General, does the agent have a name?" Chuck asked, confused.

Casey snorted, "Of course she does moron, it's not like she wasn't given a name at birth."

"Yes she does have a name, but at her request I will not give a name, I will though give you her code name, as per her request, any flashes as to her identity Mr. Bartowski are to be kept secret. She will be arriving either sometime today, or tomorrow. Agent Walker, she will be sharing your apartment for the time being, the excuse being she is an old friend of yours that needs a place to stay until she has her own place to stay. Any questions?"

"Yeah, what's her code name?" Sarah asked, she wanted to know if she recognized the name or if she could find it.

"Of course, her code name is Top Hat."

Chuck's face blanked and he flashed, there was more info on this Top Hat character than any other person he had ever flashed on. When he finished Beckman was gone and Sarah was looking at him in concern.

"You okay Chuck?" Casey grunted in annoyance.

"Yeah, but there was a lot of intel on this Top Hat person, than any other person I've flashed on."

"What type of intel Chuck?" Both Sarah and Casey looked concerned.

"Nothing big, just a lot of pictures, and some documentation, and some false identities she's used in the past. Beckman said to keep it a secret though, so I will."

Sarah and Casey nodded, "Let's get to our shifts, Chuck, we should probably talk before the new handler gets here, be here at 12:15." Sarah turned, she was worried that this new handler would take Chuck from her, not that he was hers; she had made sure to keep her feelings from being apparent.

She watched Chuck and Casey leave; Beckman appeared on the screen, "Walker are you alone?"

"Yes General, I'm alone."

"I have to inform you that the agent that is coming does know you, she requested your team as her location and mission."

"Am I allowed to know who she is, and how she knows me? I don't know the code name Top Hat."

"She asked that for now, you did not know her identity, just her code name, she did however ask me to pass a message along to you. The message is: 'Two Blonde Lobsters, one named Jenny, one named Mandy, a third comes along, and the one named Jenny leaves.' I have no idea what that means, I'm assuming you do, or that you will figure it out. She has not of yet told me her cover name, she'll let me know when she arrives and then I will tell you."

"General, will I still be the Asset's cover girlfriend? Or will the new agent take this job?"

"I will let you figure that one out on your own, once you meet the new agent, you'll know the answer. Beckman out."

Sarah stood there, she was close to being reassigned, she knew it, ever since she and Chuck had gone AWOL, had the intersect removed and re-uploaded the intersect into his brain, and the close call in the hotel room, she had been on a fine line. It was now only a matter of time before reassignment. When the Intersect had been reloaded into Chuck's brain, he had decided to go back to the Buy More until some other career could be found for him, Ellie hadn't been happy, but after the wedding he had given her, she hadn't complained for long.

So because of that, she still worked at the Orange Orange, and Casey, reluctantly and grudgingly had gone back to the Buy More, he was still complaining about it even after a few weeks.

She looked at the time, "Damn, I'm late." She went upstairs to the Yogurt shop and opened up. She knew that business was slow, all the time, but she had to keep her cover intact.

She looked outside as she flipped the sign to open; she was surprised by what she saw.

A hunched over young girl in a gray hoodie and jeans, there wasn't anyone else around, the parking lot was virtually empty except for her Porsche and the cars over in the Buy More parking lot.

She walked out the door and sat down next to the girl. Her hood covered her hair and face, and large brown sunglasses further covered her eyes. "Do you need anything?"

The girl looked at her, "No," she said in a British Accent, "I'm fine, I just needed a rest before I move on."

"Where are you going?"

"Los Angeles, or Hollywood, I really wanna be in the movies, but my parents wouldn't support me, so I kinda ran away."

"Well, I probably shouldn't, but do you like Frozen Yogurt?"

"Who doesn't?"

"Well come on in, and I'll get you one, my treat, what flavor?" Sarah and the girl stood up and walked into the Yogurt shop.

"What flavors are there?"

"Plenty, how about I surprise you, I promise I won't make it anything bad."

"Alright, I'm an adventurous girl, you can choose it for me."

Sarah watched the girl sit down at one of the tables with a weary sigh, the girl reached up and pulled off her sunglasses, her hood now shadowed her eyes. Sarah filled two bowls with the frozen yogurt and sat down across from the girl.

"Yum, Lemon, never tasted this before, I like it."

"Good, I've actually never tried it either, but my boyfriend assures me it's quite good." Chuck did like the Lemon flavor, but Sarah needed to not give anything else about him away, just in case, there was no telling. The bell above the door rang and Casey came in.

"Customers this early, wow, haven't seen that in a while, we need to talk."

"Now Casey?"

"No we can wait until you have no more customers, but it needs to happen before you and the moron talk today."

"He has a name Casey, and I would prefer if you used it."

"Yeah, but moron works well for me, so get used to it, and keep your lady feelings out of the way."

"Thank You for the yogurt, it was really good. I really have to be going though; I'm hoping to catch the bus to Hollywood. Thanks again." The girl had stood up from the table and walked towards the two agents, she had put her sunglasses back on and even though the sun was shining through the door, Sarah and Casey still couldn't see more than her mouth, which was set in a tiny smile.

"You're welcome, anytime you're in Burbank, make sure to stop by okay."

The girl nodded and headed out the door. Sarah turned to Casey, "What did you need?"

"Like I said, keep your lady feelings out of the way with the asset, we still don't know what might happen with this new intersect. Don't mess with his head Walker, got it?"

"Yeah I got it Casey, I'm not new at this."

"No, but I've seen you with Bartowski. Oh, and don't ask him questions, he so lovesick, he'd probably tell you who this Top Hat person is."

Casey went and sat down at the table where the young girl had been sitting.

"Beckman contacted me, apparently I know Top Hat, but I've never heard that name before in my life, except in the context of an actual Top Hat. Top Hat even left me a riddle, one I have no idea how to solve, or make sense of. Why can't I ask Chuck what he knows maybe he can at least give me some Intersect…"

"Shh!" Casey interrupted Sarah. Reaching under the table he pulled out a GLG-20, one commonly used by Fulcrum to make short-range transmissions. He switched it off, "How long has this been her Walker?" He growled.

"The only customer I had today was that girl, and nobody sat at that table yesterday, the chairs were in Castle since ours were being exchanged for new ones."

"That means that girl planted that bug, and I bet you have no idea what her name is."

"You're right, I don't know what her name is, but I do know she's headed to the bus station, we should grab her, I'll call Chuck and let him know."

"Fine, I'll grab the guns."

Sarah felt her adrenaline kick in as she punched in Chuck's number and ran down into Castle to change into better clothes.

"Hey Sarah, what's going on?"

"Chuck, stay in the Buy More, Casey and I are going to apprehend someone who planted a GLG-20 in the Orange Orange this morning. We have to find out who she's working for, and why she planted the bug."

"Okay, I'll stay in the Buy More, but what if I get called on an install?"

"Chuck, just do your job, keep your watch on you, and be careful, we'll be back soon."

Sarah hung up the phone and left Chuck staring at it.

Outside the Orange Orange

**Burbank CA**

**10:10 am**

As Sarah and Casey discussed the new agent and found the bug, the young girl was listening in on the earpiece.

Her Cell Phone rang.

"Hello…Understood…I'm listening in right now…Of course I know…I'm going to see Mr. Bartowski right now…Alright…I understand…Fine with me."

The young girl looked back at the Orange Orange, they had found her bug, she knew that they'd look for her at the bus station, so she had a little time, enough time to see how much Chuck Bartowski knew about Sarah Walker. She pulled her hoodie off and stashed it in the backpack she had hidden in between the Buy More and Orange Orange. Her long curly blonde hair was now free for the world to see, she pulled a brush through it. She smiled, a smile much like the one Sarah used when she had seduced her mark, and was close to getting what she wanted. As long as Sarah Walker didn't see her, she was good, this was a mission of vengeance to her, she had to get back at Sarah Walker for what she had done all those years ago. Now was the time to repay her for ruining her mother's life, and in the end, effectively killing her.

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_Who is the teenaged girl? What is Top Hat's connection with Sarah? Does Fulcrum know who the Intersect is? The next chapter will reveal the answers to these and other mysteries. Please press that little button below this and tell me what you think, I won't get mad if you don't like it, promise. I just really want to know if this is worth continuing. Thanks for reading._


	2. Chapter 2

_A/N: Okay so I didn't wait long before posting, but I had this chapter finished and I got reviews saying that people liked it (not a lot, but hey if someone wants to read this then I'll gladly write more). This will hopefully keep the readers on board and won't chase anyone away. Also any and all mistakes are mine, I'm relatively new to the site so I don't know how to get this thing edited, so sorry in advance for any mistakes made. I didn't mention this before but this story takes place post finale. I know that they quit the Buy More and that Fulcrum is seemingly small potatoes, but this is my FanFic and I've had this idea for a while, so Fulcrum is involved and Casey and Chuck are back at the Buy More. Seriously, can anyone else see them working anywhere else? _

Disclaimer: I do not own Chuck, Sarah, Casey, Fulcrum, or the Greyhound bus station. I do have a grey dog, but he is an Australian Shepherd Lab mix, so he doesn't work. NBC owns Chuck and will be making a big mistake if they don't renew the season for a whole season.

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Chapter 2 Buy More

**Burbank CA**

**10:15 am**

Chuck was sitting at the Nerd Herd desk looking through pictures on his phone. The store was virtually empty and there was nothing else to do. He tried not to, but he kept opening the files of Sarah and him with Ellie and Awesome, or with Morgan and Anna, or just pictures of the two of them not on mission.

He was so into looking at the pictures and thinking about Sarah that he didn't hear the bell on the desk ring.

"Excuse me? Can I get some help here?"

Chuck looked up from his phone, standing in front of the desk was a tall teenaged girl, she had long blonde hair that remotely reminded him of Sarah, along with the same blue eyes that he always got lost in, but he shouldn't be thinking of that, this was a customer.

"Sorry, I had zoned out, I haven't been very busy this morning. How can I help you…"

"Elizabeth, I dropped my cell phone and the battery popped out, I put the battery back in but it won't turn on, could you fix it? It was a gift from my parents and they'll kill me if I've broken it." The girl had a distinct British or Australian accent, and was obviously panicked. Chuck decided to calm her down before she hyperventilated, the benefit of living with two doctors was that he knew the signs of someone who was about to hyperventilate.

"Okay, hold on just a second, let me take a look before you get to worried, if there's something wrong, I'll fix it quickly for you, free of charge, okay?"

The girl looked at him and smiled, "Thanks, that would be great, I'd really like that. Umm, I kinda have to go, could I pick the phone up later?"

"Yeah, but I need the phone first."

The girl looked startled, "Oh right, sorry, let me get it." She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone, she set it down on the counter along with a digital watch which had been stuck on the phone. "Do you have watch batteries?"

"Yes we do sell batteries, and I'd be glad to insert it for you while I fix the phone."

"Really?" The girl's smile lit up her face as she looked at him with obvious relief.

"Yes, I'll do that free of charge also, just don't tell the manager Emmet, he'll get kinda mad."

"Cool, look, could I maybe pick it up tomorrow afternoon? My parents are out of town for the weekend so I don't need it immediately, so if anything more important please take care of that first."

"Fine, I'll have it ready by tomorrow afternoon."

"Thanks, goodbye, I don't think I got your name.'

"It's Chuck, Chuck Bartowski."

"Thanks Chuck, see you tomorrow."

Chuck watched the girl go and picked the phone up, there weren't any scratches on the face or back, he opened it and saw the problem, the battery was in backwards, he had no idea why she had brought it in, but he turned the battery around and turned it on. It wasn't broken or messed up in anyway, it asked for a password, so he turned it off and turned his attention to the watch.

"Lester, could you get me some watch batteries please." He called to his coworker.

Lester sighed but brought a pack of watch batteries over to Chuck. He walked away grumbling about lazy coworkers. "Thanks Lester." Chuck called after him, Lester didn't respond. Chuck smiled, Lester really needed to get a life other than making porn videos with Jeff.

He looked at the watch that Elizabeth had left. He examined it closely, it was a nice watch, silver with lime green numbers and a symbol in the middle. He couldn't see the symbol very well so he lifted the watch up near his face so he could see it better. All the sudden the largest flash he had encountered yet hit him, it was bigger than the flash on Top Hat not 20 minutes earlier, the flash floored him. When it was over, he had a massive headache. 'Don't freak out Chuck, Sarah and Casey will know what to do' he thought, pulling out his cell phone.

"Sarah," he said when she had picked up her phone, "There was a trained assassin in the buy More not three minutes ago, I had this huge flash, I don't know if she works for the government or not. She was like only 15 too, I'm serious, she couldn't have been much over that. I have her phone and watch, she left them here to get fixed, what should I do?"

"Calm down Chuck, listen, Casey and I are at the bus station right now, go to Castle and stay there until we get back, understood? Stay in Castle."

"Okay, Okay, I'll stay in Castle. What do I do about the phone and watch?"

"Bring them with you, we'll examine them later."

Chuck hung up the phone and picked up the assassin's phone and watch. 'Calm down Chuck,' he thought as he made his way towards the secret entrance to Castle hidden inside the Buy More break room, he checked to see if anyone was watching him. Ever since Morgan and Anna had quit and Emmet had become manager, the break room had been pretty empty most of the time, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Chuck keyed in the entry code and quickly made his way into Castle, once there he relaxed, he was safe here. 'Okay Chuck, time to find a some things out about this girl.' Chuck thought as he turned the cell phone of the assassin on. It asked for a password, Chuck typed the number 0 four times in succession it didn't work. He tried 0123, that didn't work either. Then he tried 1 four times, that worked, apparently this girl didn't know how to protect her phone very well.

The phone buzzed, indicating that a text message had come in. The text read: _Well Jenny I guess you're kinda freaking out now, aren't you? Well, very soon you'll know who I am and why I'm taking such an interest in your project and the Intersect. Yes I know about the Intersect._

"Oh Shit!" Chuck said before fainting.

Greyhound bus station

**Burbank CA**

**10:25 am**

Sarah and Casey looked around but they didn't see any sign of the mystery girl they suspected had planted the bug in the Orange Orange. They had arrived at the station just as the bus to Hollywood was pulling out. There was no way they could be sure that the girl had left Burbank, but Sarah and Casey were sure upset about losing their target, they couldn't even be sure that the girl had planted the bug.

Sarah's cell phone buzzed and she picked it up.

"Sarah, there was this trained assassin in the Buy More not three minutes ago, I had this huge flash, I don't know if she works for the government or not. She was like only 15 too, I'm serious, she couldn't have been much over that. I have her phone and watch, she left them here to get fixed, what should I do?" "Calm down Chuck, listen, Casey and I are at the bus station right now, go to Castle and stay there until we get back, understood? Stay in Castle." "Okay, Okay, I'll stay in Castle. What do I do about the phone and watch?"

"Bring them with you, we'll examine them later." She hung up the phone, "Damn, Casey we need to get to Castle now."

"Why Agent Walker? Did the moron flash on something?"

"I told you Casey, his name is Chuck, so call him Chuck or I will make you." Sarah's glance was dark and serious, Casey decided against arguing.

"Fine, I'll call him Chuck, unless he does something moronic, then he'll be moron, or idiot. What happened?"

"Chuck had a flash on a teenaged girl, I think it might be our girl, she was in the Buy More, she left her watch and phone for him to fix. I don't know what all she knows, but we'd better hope that our cover hasn't been blown." 'I don't think I could handle a reassignment,' she thought as they ran towards the black SUV that was sitting in the parking lot. Something about the message this Top Hat person had sent her was niggling in the back of her brain. The Two Blonde Lobsters part sounded familiar, but she didn't know why. She'd think about this later when she had time, right not her asset was in trouble.

Castle Compound

**Burbank CA**

**10:45 am**

Sarah and Casey had arrived at Castle and looked at the text message on the phone. They had immediately called Beckman to relay the information to her. She wasn't very happy.

"What do you mean the asset's identity has been compromised? How is that possible?"

"Well General," Sarah began.

"General there was a 15 year old assassin in the Buy More today, I don't know why someone would even allow for there to be a 15 year old assassin, but apparently someone has. From what I could see she didn't have any agency affiliations, anywhere, not even with Fulcrum, or the Ring."

"Thank you for the information Mr. Bartowski, did you get a name?"

"No, there was no name anywhere in her files. I don't know who she is other than an assassin."

"Agents, for now, continue with Operation Bartowski. Agent Walker, you are assigned to 24/7 protective duty as of now, which means, Chuck and Sarah, you will be moving in together."

The General disconnected the call and the screen went blank.

"Well I guess we should tell Ellie and Awesome, they're back from their honeymoon, so I guess we'll see what happens." Chuck said with a tone of resignation in his voice.

Sarah was about to answer when her phone rang. There was an unregistered number showing, she answered. "Hello?"

"Hi is this Jennifer Lisa Burton?"

Sarah body went rigid with fear, "Who is asking?"

"This is Social Services, we are escorting one Rachel Elizabeth Burton to her guardian Jennifer Lisa Burton's place of residence."

"When will you be arriving?"

"We expect to arrive in 30 minutes, we hope this won't be a problem."

"No, it's just that I didn't get the letter till this morning, is there a way to give up custody?"

"Yes, but it is required in your mother's will that you be given custody of your sister for 30 days."

"Thank you, I'll see you in a little while, goodbye."

Sarah hung up the phone and picked up her keys, "I'm leaving for the rest of the day, Casey escort Chuck home then to my hotel room as soon as he is off work."

"What's going on Sarah?" Chuck asked.

"It's personal." With that she ran up the stairs and left Castle.

Sarah's Apartment

**Burbank CA**

**11:15 AM**

The knock at the door signified the arrival of someone she wasn't super excited about seeing again, especially after the last time they had met. Taking a deep breath to suppress her fear Sarah opened the door.

Standing outside were two people, one was the Child Services agent, the agent nodded to Sarah and left. The other was a tall teenaged girl with blonde hair and blue eyes that looked a lot like Sarah's.

"Hello Jenny, or should I say…Sarah?"

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_Ooh, cliffhanger, how does Sarah's sister know her cover name? Is she Fulcrum? What is her personal vendetta against Sarah? Who is the illusive Top Hat? How does she know Sarah? Will Sarah get a reassignment? And what will Chuck do when he has to stay with Sarah, and the assassin? All this will be answered in the next chapter, at least it should be. Please press that little button down there that says review, it means a lot to know that you appreciate the work put into the story. If you don't like it, review anyway I need to know what to change. Thanks for reading, you guys are the bomb._


	3. Chapter 3

_Disclaimer: Here are a list of things I don't own, a cell phone, a car, an Ipod, Chuck, Sarah, Casey, Ellie, Devon, The Season one DVD Chuck set. Here are a list of things I do own, Some episodes of Chuck on Itunes, Rachel, and the computer I'm writing on._

_A/N: This chapter deals with who the mystery girl is, finally, and what she is doing in Burbank. __Sorry it took so long, but my weekend was busy and I was sick Monday. Yesterday I wrote but didn't finish it before my parents sent me to bed. I still don't know how to get any editing done, so if there are any mistakes they are all mine, if anyone wants to help me in this area, please do!!_

Chapter 3

Sarah's Apartment

**Burbank, CA**

**11:30 AM**

The knock at the door signified the arrival of someone she wasn't super excited about seeing again, especially after the last time they had met. Taking a deep breath to suppress her fear Sarah opened the door.

Standing outside were two people, one was the Child Services agent, the agent nodded to Sarah and left. The other was a tall teenaged girl with blonde hair and blue eyes that looked a lot like Sarah's.

"Hello Jenny, or should I say…Sarah?"

Sarah's jaw dropped, that wasn't usual for her, she could usually keep her emotions in check. 'Damn,' she thought, 'I'm getting soft.'

"Don't look like that, It's easy, seemingly everyone in this hotel knows you. I had at least 10 people come up and ask me if I was related to Sarah Walker. I suspected that you had changed your name, but I didn't admit to them that I was."

"Why did you suspect my name had changed," Sarah had a pit in her stomach that was growing by the second.

"Sarah, it took us 2 ½ months to find you, we had to go through multiple law enforcement agencies, and then the CIA agreed to find you. Once they did they sent you a letter. Then it was time for me to move here. Do you want to go by Sarah or Jenny?" Rachel said as an afterthought.

"Sarah, that's the name I'm going by now."

"What, are you and dad in the middle of another con?"

"No! I just decided it would be easier to legally change my name so that people from my past wouldn't recognize me. I'm so used to changing names I do it without thinking almost every time I move."

"Well, does that mean I should change my last name?"

"You don't have to do it legally, but yes it would make it a whole lat easier on my boyfriend's sister if she didn't have to figure out why I changed my name. Chuck knows about my past, but she doesn't."

"Chuck?" The amazement that Sarah would date a man named Chuck was apparent on Rachel's face. Sarah immediately fell into her role of protector, something that had intensified since they had gone AWOL.

"Yes, Chuck, he's the sweetest guy I know. Speaking of Chuck, I'm supposed to meet him for lunch, do you want to come with me, or stay here?"

Rachel thought long and hard for a second, and Sarah, who prided herself on being able to read people's emotions, something that came in handy when on missions, couldn't read her decision.

"I'm kinda tired, I'll stay, unpack and hopefully get a nap. Where am I supposed to sleep?"

"For now, you can sleep on my bed, we'll probably have to get an apartment or something soon, but I haven't really had time to prepare, I got the letter this morning."

"Okay, where should I put my things?"

"Wherever you can, the closet, and you can shift the stuff in my drawers if you need to." Sarah glanced at her watch, she knew that she needed to be going so that she could beat traffic and be back the Orange Orange on time. "I have to be going, make sure you lock the door behind me, and here," Sarah pulled out her key ring and handed Rachel the key to the apartment, "If you need to leave, pull the door shut and lock it. My cell number is written down on the dresser, anything else you might need?"

Rachel shook her head and waved goodbye, Sarah walked out the door and Rachel breathed a sigh of relief. She reached into her waistband and pulled out her gun, it felt good in her hands, now for the final test, were Sarah and Casey competent as handlers? Would they hesitate to shoot her, or would they try to fight her, she didn't know, she only knew that whatever happened today, she would finally be able to have her revenge.

Orange Orange

**Burbank, CA**

**12:15 PM**

Sarah had just made it back to the Orange Orange, she had been shocked when her younger sister had been able to guess her cover identity, the next thirty days were going to be a problem for her. She had called Case and Chuck and informed them that she would in fact be coming back and that she needed to talk to Chuck so he needed to come over for lunch. Now she was waiting for him, he tried to always be on time, but she knew that sometimes he couldn't get away from the store quickly enough. He showed up at 12:17, breathless.

"Sorry Sarah, I had a customer, and I couldn't rush them." His expression was sorrowful, and Sarah, who until that point had fixed her face in a cold, hard, angry look, softened and allowed her smile to show through.

"It's okay Chuck, I understand, come on, we need to talk in Castle."

Sarah led Chuck into the freezer, and into Castle. "Chuck, this about the new agent."

Chuck nodded, not saying anything, his eyes were fixed on hers.

"Chuck, after we went AWOL and Casey so kindly saved us from imprisonment, I've been expecting reassignment, I think that's why the new agent is coming, to be your handler. I don't know for sure, but Chuck, I just had to tell you that…" They heard the unmistakable sound of the main Castle door opening, they turned around expecting to see Casey.

"Would you two love birds please not ruin my break, talk about your lady feelings somewhere else." Sarah and Chuck jumped, Casey was standing behind them, having entered from BuyMore and the armory where he'd been taking his lunch break.

"Casey, if you came from BuyMore and have been here longer than us, who just came in through the main door?" Sarah asked, going into full on agent mode.

"Uh, Guys, I think I can answer that one," Casey and Sarah turned from where they were standing to look at Chuck.

'Damn Walker,' Sarah thought to herself for the second time in one day, 'You're getting soft."

Standing behind them, was Chuck, with a knife to his throat and a gun pointed at Sarah and Casey. The hands holding the knife and gun belonged to the mysterious girl Sarah and

Casey had been looking for earlier. She is again wearing her hoodie and sunglasses.

Simultaneously Sarah and Casey reached for their guns, the knife that was held to Chuck's throat flew out of the girl's hand and in between the crook of Casey's arm and his body, her froze, so did Sarah.

"Don't try anything Agents. Sarah, you know you should never leave an asset alone, especially if there's a chance of him being identified. Yet, all it took was one misplaced lead and you go following that lead." The girl's gun is now pointed at Chuck's head and a new knife had replaced her old one.

"Who are you?" Sarah said, hatred evident in her tone, she is inching slowly towards the girl, fortunately for her, the girl fails to notice it.

"I'm here for revenge, you broke my mother's heart 13 years ago, and she was never the same, you essentially killed her, even though it was a car crash that took her life."

Casey saw that there were tears in her eyes and tried to take advantage of the situation by drawing his gun, the other knife held in the girl's hand flies through the room and grazes his arm. He clenches his teeth in pain as the blood begins to spill, he of course drops his gun.

Sarah takes the opportunity and lunges at the girl, knocking her off balance she frees Chuck and tries to wrench the gun from her hand, "Run Chuck," she yells continuing to fight the girl. Chuck runs towards the exit. The sound of a gun going off stops him in his tracks, hoping that what he fears isn't true, he looks back, the girl is holding her gun and Sarah is on the ground.

"Sarah," Chuck screams and runs towards her, the girl is standing there dazed, then before Casey or Chuck get a chance to get a gun, she runs towards the exit.

"This is Agent Casey, I need an ambulance, I have an agent down, I repeat agent down." Casey screams into his phone.

"Chuck," Sarah whispers to him, "I wanted to say earlier, that I, that I, I love you Chuck Bartowski." She slips into unconsciousness and Chuck begins to sob holding her to him. He sees that the bullet had entered her side, and all he can think about is that it is where Bryce was hit. He checks her pulse, fearing the worst, he is glad to find that she still had a pulse, granted it is weak, but it is steady and it is a pulse.

Westside Medical Center

**Burbank, CA**

**8 PM**

Sarah had been rushed to the hospital and gone into surgery. Devon had operated on her and had come out two hours later saying that she would be fine. She had a mild concussion and her side would be sore for a few weeks after surgery, but otherwise she would live. Devon and Casey had urged Chuck to go home and get some rest, Sarah would be asleep at least until morning after the anesthesia and pain medication she was on. Chuck finally agreed to go home after Devon promised to call if anything changed.

Rachel had watched all of these proceedings where she had been hiding in the waiting room. She couldn't believe what had happened, Sarah was never supposed to get shot, she wasn't trying to actually hurt anyone. She just wanted to make sure that Sarah and Casey were on their toes. After Chuck and Casey left, Rachel slipped down the hall and into Sarah's room.

She almost cried, Sarah looked so pale and the only way Rachel knew she was alive was the steady beeping of the monitors and the almost indiscernible rise and fall of Sarah's chest. Rachel's agent training took over and she saw every movement and heard every sound Sarah made.

"Who are you?"

Rachel turned in surprise, she had been concentrating so hard on Sarah that she had forgotten to keep a small part of her tuned into the rest of the sounds around her.

"Damn," she whispered then spoke to the brunette lady behind her. "I'm Sarah's sister, are you her doctor?"

The lady's eyes widened and she answered, "Yes, I'm her doctor, but I'm also her boyfriend's sister. She's never mentioned anything about having a sister."

"Yeah, our parents got divorced 13 years ago, I was two, she went with dad and I went stayed with mom. We haven't seen each other since I was seven. Mom just died and she just got custody of me." Rachel swallowed hard, she was trying very hard to not let the feelings show, that was her agent training.

"I'm sorry to hear about your mother, Sarah's never really talked about her family."

"It's okay, but is Sarah going to be okay?"

"Yeah, she's going to be fine, she's heavily drugged right now so that she'll get enough rest."

"Can I stay here? I can't stay at the hotel alone."

"Yeah that's fine, but if you need a place to stay you could always stay at my apartment."

"No, that's fine." Rachel said a little too fast, she knew Chuck would recognize her in an instant. "I'd rather stay here, I want to talk to her when she wakes up."

"Okay, if you need anything, you just tell one of the nurses to call me."

"What's your name? I'll kind of need it."

"Sorry, I'm Doctor Ellie Woodcomb."

"Thanks Doctor Woodcomb. I'll tell the nurses if I do need anything."

Ellie smiled at her and left the room. Rachel sat down next to Sarah and finally let down her defenses. She sobbed until she was out of tears, "I'm so sorry Sarah, I didn't mean it, I didn't mean to hurt you, you weren't supposed to get shot. General Beckman asked me to make sure that you and Casey were on top of your game and not compromised. I know now that you are definitely compromised, but I also know that you need to stay, I can tell how much your love for Chuck helps you protect him. I'm not sure about Casey, but I know you guys can definitely protect Chuck better than any other team. I really want to stay, but I don't know whether or not you'll forgive me or not."

"I'll forgive you," Rachel turned in shock, drawing her gun from her waistband. She was surprised to see Chuck standing there, he had entered the room without her being aware.

'Damn,' she thought again, 'how do they keep doing that?' "How long have you been standing there?" She asked him, wondering what he had heard her say.

"Umm, I pretty much heard everything you said to her. I didn't understand everything, but I'm willing to forgive you if you're willing to make a better explanation. Deal?"

Rachel smiled, "Deal. First, what are you doing back? I thought that Devon and Casey had convinced you to go home."

"Yeah, they did, but I left my watch at home and snuck out."

"Doesn't he have surveillance in your room?"

"Yeah, but Casey accompanied me home and made sure I got in bed before he went home. So when he had left the room I threw pillows under the covers to look like me and went out my Morgan door."

"Morgan door?" Rachel asked incredulously

"My window, it's called the Morgan door because my best friend uses it frequently to get into my house."

"Ah, I see, well I guess it's my turn."

"Yeah, but while you're explaining everything, do you mind not pointing your gun at me?"

Rachel looked down at her hand, she was still holding the gun she had pulled on Chuck. She laughed and put it back in her waistband. "Well, I guess this story kinda starts when I was eight I had just graduated high-school and was entering my freshmen and sophomore year at college, I was a child genius. Anyway 9/11 hit and the NSA and CIA were blaming each other for what happened. My step-dad and I had, throughout my high-school years, built the Intersect computer, I helped for extra credit, dad because he wanted to do something good for the country."

Chuck's eyes widened in amazement, "What was your step-dad's name?"

"I don't remember, he left when I was 11. Anyway, the CIA approached me about becoming an analyst for them, but I declined saying I wanted to be a field agent, they were surprised, but they agreed to train me anyway. My training was complete when I graduated with a degree much like the one you know have. I was too young to be put in any deep cover assignments at 10, and so I was told to help my step-dad with the Intersect so I did. We had already completed the intersect before 9/11 happened, but we were now working on making it possible for human's to see, the Human Intersect project, which was shut down after my step-dad left."

"He tested it on himself to see if it would work, and it did. But then to make sure it would work on more than just him, we tried it on me, and it did, but differently than it had for him, much differently, I could withstand more flashes and larger flashes than he could. We couldn't figure out why, or what the difference was, but we now knew that unless it worked the same for everyone, it wouldn't work because it was possible that some people would react negatively to it. You were involved in the Meadow Branch program, I know that you were the only one that didn't experience a negative reaction. Anyway to finish up, after my mom died and it was stated in her will that I live with my sister, the General automatically asked me be a part of Team Bartowski. Since I know the most about the intersect next to my step-dad and I'm a trained field agent, I made the perfect agent to test Sarah and Casey's commitment as your handlers, I'd say that they're doing a good job."

Chuck was silent for a minute trying to process what she had just told him, finally he spoke, "So the whole gun to head and knife to my throat wasn't because you wanted the intersect?"

Rachel smiled, Chuck realized her smile looked just like Sarah's, "No, it was to test how good Sarah and Casey were doing their jobs, Sarah wasn't supposed to get shot, we were supposed to speak to the General and clear the whole matter up. But Sarah is so compromised and doing such a good job at her job that she was willing to die for you."

"I know, she's said many times that she would, I hope it never comes to that."

"Me too, I'd have nowhere else to live."

Chuck smiled, Rachel almost laughed at the big goofy grin that he had. But something stopped her, her agent's senses were on high alert, finally she said, "How long have you been here Casey?"

Chuck's face showed surprise, and Casey walked in with a grunt. "Long enough, I know you."

"Yeah, we worked together a little while ago, with a DEA agent, I think it was in Prague, remember that time Casey? I do, I still have pictures."

Casey Grunted again and Chuck couldn't help but laugh.

"What's so funny," a small quiet voice from the hospital bed made them all turn in surprise, Sarah was lying there awake.

"Sarah," Chuck said rushing to her side, "You aren't supposed to wake up till morning."

"Well, they should've given me more pain medication then, cause they definitely didn't give me enough."

Casey walked to the foot of her bed, "You were never one to obey orders, were you Walker."

Rachel stayed hidden in the shadows, she couldn't face her sister right now, not after what had happened. Tears started welling in her eyes and she was surprised, she had thought she was out of tears.

"Rachel, get over here, I know you're there." Sarah's voice from the bed surprised Rachel. She went to stand over beside Casey. "Over here Rachel," she pointed to the side of the bed opposite Chuck.

Rachel reluctantly moved to the side of the bed. "How long have you been awake?" She was dreading the answer.

"I heard every word you said." Rachel started to turn, knowing that her sister had to be mad at her. Sarah grabbed her arm, "But I'm not mad at you Rachel, I forgive you."

The tears that had been accumulating in Rachel's eyes as she leaned over and embraced her sister, their tears were mingling as the wrongs of the past were erased.

_A/N So, Rachel is the mystery girl, though some of you may have known that, and she's a CIA agent, I don't think many people knew that. The next chapter will have some Charah and we'll find out what happened the nigh Rachel's mother died. The next chapter should be up within the next few days, hopefully._


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: I'm back with the next installment of Chuck vs. The Little Sister. I've decided that I'm going to add each new chapter, about every week or so, depends on my schedule, if I'm allowed to be on my computer, hey my parents won't let me get on sometimes, and how fast I get each new chapter written. I already know where I want this story to go, and also it's sequels, yes there will be multiple sequels to this, hopefully at least so that should help. Anyway, hope you guys like it and remember to R&R so that I'll know what you think. I still don't have a beta reader so all mistakes are mine, and there probably are a few._

_Disclaimer: Hi my name is Madje Knotts and here are a few things you might need to know, I'm 15, live in a small town in NC I have 4 younger siblings, I'm home schooled, and what else, oh yeah, I don't own Chuck, but NBC does and they renewed it, YAY!!!!_

Chapter 4

Castle Burbank CA

**May 28****th**** 2009**

**8:45 AM**

One week later the team was assembled in the Castle waiting for a briefing with General Beckman. Sarah had been out of the hospital for two days and she was now fully recovered.

Casey was still pissed about what Rachel had done but he understood why she had done what she had done. Sarah and Rachel had done nothing but talk, about their past, each others involvement in the agency, as much as was sanctioned anyway, and what was going to happen in the future. Casey avoided the hospital like the plague, stating, "Sitting here through these lady feelings and tears is too much to ask of me."

Chuck stayed at Sarah's bedside silent, but a viable presence nonetheless. There wasn't a long length of time that went by where Chuck wasn't either holding Sarah's hand, or stroking her hair. Neither of them had breached the subject of Sarah's declaration right after she was shot, but it was constantly on both of their minds.

When Sarah was finally released, five days after being admitted, she and Rachel had gone home, despite pleas from Ellie otherwise. Rachel convinced Ellie that she would be able to take care of Sarah, who was almost completely recovered, herself. Ellie reluctantly agreed, but said she would send Chuck over frequently to check on them.

When Sarah and Rachel got home though, despite doctors orders, the two of them sparred, Sarah so she could get her strength back up, and Rachel so she could test her own skills against that of Sarah's. When Chuck had arrived two hours later, both her and Sarah were covered in sweat and breathing hard. He immediately made Sarah get in bed, chastising both her and Rachel for having her do physical activity right after being released from the hospital. When Chuck left though, they were both back up, working the punching bag, sparring, and doing every type of physical activity Sarah was able to do.

Now, two days later, Sarah was fully recovered and back in shape, thanks to Rachel. The team was more comfortable around each other than they would have been otherwise and so they were talking quietly waiting for Beckman's conference call.

"Colonel, Bartowski, Agents, good to see you on your feet again Walker." The general said as soon as she came online.

The four of the nodded in greeting and the general went on, "I know the four of you got off to a rough start and I should have given you warning before Agent Burton arrived. Now, Agent Burton, what is your assessment?"

"General, I believe that while Agents Walker and Casey are compromised, they are both the best handlers you could have assigned to the asset. Both tried numerous times to stop me, oh, and I believe that you needed a cover name for me. I'll go by Rachel Elizabeth Walker, I believe I'll still be staying with Agent Walker."

"Of course, but to avoid confusion, when we're in conferencing, you'll be Agent Burton, otherwise, you'll be Agent Walker."

"Of course General that's what I expected. Where am I going to work General, seeing as I've already completed school and it wouldn't be fair to the other students if I were to go back."

"You will be working with Mr. Bartowski in the Nerd Herd, we're hoping to find another vocation for him soon, seeing as he had quit the Buy More before re-uploading the intersect and we gave him no choice but to ask for his job back."

"Which Emmett, who is just as bad at working as Big Mike and Morgan at doing work, was glad to get me and Casey back. And I'm back at my demeaning job as supervisor of the Nerd Herd."

"You know moron, you could take the assistant manager position Emmett's offered you 100 times in the past 2 weeks."

"Yes Mr. Bartowski, you could take the job, as a matter of fact, I think you should." General Beckman said, as she considered quickly the pros and cons of the idea.

"I'm sorry General, I know that I'm an important government asset and all, but I can't be stuck at the Buy More for the rest of my life. I've been there longer than I expected already. I also happen to know that Emmett's offered the job to Colonel Casey as well."

Casey grunted in contempt, as the General replied to Chuck's underlying idea, "Very good, Colonel take the job. If there's nothing else I have other work to do."

The General closed down the communications and Chuck said, "What if we ever had anything else? What would happen then?"

Rachel laughed, "Well she covers everything very well, as long as I've been an agent, there's never been anything else, so maybe she knows that there won't be."

Casey grunted, " Or she knows that no one will question her because anyone that has ever asked a question after she asks about questions, is never answered."

Chuck shrugged and nodded in a, "yeah I guess so," gesture. "Well Casey, I guess you'd better go talk to Emmett, this way we'll be sure to have Rachel in the position by this afternoon. Have fun being Emmett's ass man."

Sarah and Rachel had to hold Casey back as he lunged at Chuck, trying to punch him. He finally growled, turned, and headed to the Buy More to let Emmett know he would take the job.

"Chuck," Sarah said, "you shouldn't be so mean to Casey, especially concerning the Buy More, you know he hates it there, why make it worse for him?"

"Sarah, he is always making my life miserable," Chuck whined, a hint of a smile on his face, "I had to take the one chance I had to get back at him." The smile widened until it was the big goofy grin Sarah knew and loved.

Rachel laughed, "It was a low blow though, making him take the assistant manager position at a Buy More, it almost cements the fact that he will be working there for a long time."

"You know Chuck, we should work on a new cover for you, maybe we could start a new software company for you."

"Not a bad idea, I'd love to own my own software company, but first things first, I have to find a new apartment, I can't live with Ellie and Awesome much longer, they need their own space, especially if they're going to start a family."

"Well, you could move in with me like planned," Sarah said, "Actually, I have to move anyway, there's not enough room in my hotel for me and Rachel, I'm going to have to get an apartment soon anyway, why don't you just move in with us."

Chuck stammered, "Ju…just…just for the cover?"

"Of course it's just for the cover, what else would it be for?"

"I don't know, but well, how many bedrooms would you get?"

"I can get a three bedroom apartment if you need me to, I don't mind, we'd just have to make it look like we shared when Devon and Ellie came over. Do you have any problems, or can I go ahead and tell the General ?"

"Go ahead, call the General, it's fine with me, I've got to go my shift is about to start, back to my demeaning life at the Buy More. I'll see you at lunch?"

Sarah nodded and watched him leave, then she noticed that Rachel was watching her, "What?"

"You, you're dancing around the one subject both of you know needs to be covered and cleared, why don't you just talk to him about it?"

"What are you talking about? There's nothing that Chuck and I need to talk about, we're good."

"Sarah, neither of you are good, you're both miserable, and you can tell Chuck wants to move in with you, but not just for cover, for real, Sarah you've got to admit to yourself that you love him."

Sarah was quiet for a moment as she tried to quell the emotions that were threatening to spill over, but she couldn't, her voice had a hitch to it as she answered Rachel, "I have, finally, it took forever to do it, but I knew for sure when Bryce and I had to act like a married couple last year. I had never had any problem, but this time, all I could think was that I was betraying Chuck, he was there watching me, and all I wanted to do was be with him, but I couldn't. Rachel, I had to bury my feelings until the General ordered me to betray his trust and bring him to be extracted, I knew I couldn't do it, so I went AWOL with him. I've never felt this way before, I was scared, not for me, but for him, I knew Casey wouldn't stop looking for him and me and that one of us could die. Then when his father extracted the intersect from his head, I was overjoyed, I could finally be with him, I was going to quit the CIA Rachel, I was going to be a civilian, then Bryce was taken by The Ring, and Chuck downloaded the intersect again. I was devastated, he may be able to access fighting techniques, but he's still untrained. Now I'm his handler again, and with all the rules surrounding handlers and assets, there's no way we can be together now."

"Sarah, if you love him, just let him know, let him know your fears, talk about yourself, mom said you always had a problem with that. If you were willing to go AWOL for him, be willing to break the other rules for him too, take it one step at a time, and you can even do it in secret, I won't tell, promise. Take a chance Sarah, be courageous, that's funny, me, telling the great Sarah Walker to be courageous. You have no problems seducing a mark, armed combat, or even hand to hand combat, but when it comes to matters of the heart, you're scared as can be."

Sarah smiled at the wisdom of her younger sister, "You know sis, you're kinda smart."

Rachel laughed, "Well, I'm not a child genius for nothing."

Sarah smiled, "You sure are, and humble too, hey if you ever need help with anything, any problems with boys, or spy related stuff, or anything, just let me know, I'll try and help the best I can, Kay?"

Rachel's smile faded, and Sarah was sure something was wrong. Rachel's hand unconsciously rubbed her stomach as she answered quietly. "Yeah, okay, I'll let you know."

So this one's a little shorter than the other chapters, but it was a good stopping place. The next chapter will involve Rachel getting hired at the Buy More, Sarah and Chuck moving in together, Chuck getting the means and help to start his own software company, and one, maybe two surprises. Please review and tell me what you think, I still don't have a beta reader so if anyone would like to help please PM me. Oh and I know of at least 2 surprises that will be in the next 2 chapters so try and guess them if you can, one will be a big surprise, the other is easy to guess if you're observant. Please review.


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N: Sorry, I know I said one chapter a week, but seeing as the last goal I set for myself was not to set anymore goals for myself (LOL). See how that worked out, I'm really bad at goals. Anyway, the other reasons are because my grandparents were in town, I was stressed out about leading my church worship (luckily it went well), then I was stressed out about playing in a band concert for a fundraiser on Friday. Also there was a big case of Writers Block that I was experiencing.  
Thanks to Wepdiggy for agreeing to beta read this chapter. I really appreciate it! I know I promised two big surprises, and there are two surprises, but the one that was originally planned for this chapter had to be moved to the next one because the chapter got longer than usual_

_Disclaimer: Hi I'm Madje Knotts and here are a few things you might need to know: Madje Knotts is not my real name, I use the word AWESOME way too often(that's for you SM93STARBUCK), I enjoy reading fanfiction and writing it too. Oh right, I don't own Chuck, NBC and WB do, and I'm so glad they renewed it, like really glad! Okay here you go._

Chapter 5

**Buy More**

**Burbank, CA**

**10:15 AM**

Chuck was sitting at the Nerd Herd desk again, going over invoices and logging them into the computer, something he hadn't been able to do all week because of Sarah's injury. Emmett was being a pain; he was worse than Big Mike when it came to hiding in his office. Chuck was glad Casey had been forced to take the assistant manager position; now maybe Emmett would get off his back, and they'd be able to go out on missions easier.

Chuck was so into his thoughts that he didn't see anyone standing in front of the desk until the bell rang. It was Rachel; like the week before her hair was down and she was wearing a gray skirt with a pink button down that looked familiar to him for some reason. Then he realized it was the outfit Sarah had worn when she had "asked him out" before he knew what the Intersect was.

"What do all CIA agents have the same wardrobe?" He asked amused.

Rachel laughed, "No, I raided Sarah's closet this morning. That's the good thing about being sisters and being the same height, we can share clothes. And since I didn't have anything suited for an interview I thought I'd borrow something from Sarah."

"Oh right the interview, Umm, let me see. Jeff," Chuck called to the other Nerd Herder who was ogling the cleavage of the women that were shopping in the store. Jeff turned and looked at Chuck. "Jeff, can you get Casey for me? There's someone here for an interview."

Jeff looked pissed but went in search of Casey muttering something about needing a nap after all the work he was doing.

Rachel laughed, "Okay, I'm going to need a run down on the work ethic around here. Does anything ever get done?"

Chuck laughed as he answered, "Very little, that was Jeff, he's usually drunk. He does very little work, and is a scarily good stalker. He has some equipment that looks like things we keep for missions." Rachel's eyes were wide and Chuck laughed as he looked for and pointed out Lester, "Over there is Lester, he's Jeff's partner in crime. He's not as bad about not doing work, but he doesn't do that much. You already know Casey of course, and the there's Big Mike; he was the manager until Emmett tricked corporate into thinking that Big Mike didn't do any work. Which basically was true, but he did keep the store running. Emmett is our manager now though, and he's worse than Big Mike; he expects a lot to get done, but does nothing. That's where me and Casey come in; we do a lot around here, and Casey's about to do more than he did of course."

"Yeah and you'd better get to work Bartowski, I'm now your superior, so get moving." Casey spoke from behind him, Chuck turned, and his eyes widened as he tried not to laugh. Casey was dressed in the yellow shirt of the assistant manager and a gray vest along with glasses that Emmett had apparently decided went with the outfit. The nerdy look on Casey was hilarious and it was hard for Chuck to keep from laughing; he couldn't keep from smiling however. "What's so funny Bartowski?"

Chuck's smile immediately disappeared as he tried to cover it up, "No…Nothing Casey, there's nothing funny."

Rachel laughed, "Oh yes there is, Casey, you look like a, like a, Geek, or a Nerd, not really sure which."

Casey glared at her but she ignored him and continued laughing, "Alright Walker, you're here for an interview, let's get on with it."

"Okay," Rachel said, suddenly business like and professional. She reached into the bag that was by her side and pulled out a sheet of paper, "Mr. Casey this is my resume. I'm a Harvard graduate with, well my resume says it all. I'm looking for a job that I can easily do while living in LA, I just need the money."

Casey looked over the resume, though he already knew that he was going to hire her, she would do better than any of the other Nerd Herders. "Well Ms. Walker, your resume is impressive; I see no problems with it. Now if you can come with me we'll talk to the manager Mr. Emmett Milbarge. As soon as we can get it cleared, and I'm sure we can, you can get to work."

Rachel smiled, and again Chuck was taken aback at how much her smile looked like Sarah's. "Thank you Mr. Casey, I can't wait to work here, oh," Rachel's smile turned mischievous and a twinkle appeared in her eye as she began to back up slowly, "I really like the glasses, geek." With that she turned and ran towards the front door, she called back, "I have to go talk to Sarah; I'll be back in a few."

Casey grunted and went to follow her but Chuck stopped him, "You have to go show Emmett the resume, she needs to work here, Beckman said. Go Casey, you don't have a choice."

Casey growled, but knew that Chuck was right so he turned on his heel and stomped off towards Emmett's office, a scowl on his face. Chuck sighed in relief, he didn't need a spy fight on his hands; he wasn't sure who would have won it, but it would have been bad.

Rachel returned ten minutes later, still laughing, "I told Sarah what Casey looked like and she had to see it for herself, we've been watching him on the cameras, we both can't believe how geeky he looks. I know you prefer nerd, but he is definitely a geek in that outfit."

Chuck laughed, "Yeah, he is, but please don't let him know I said that. Emmett's waiting for you in his office; he actually came out to tell me how impressed he was and to let you know he was waiting for you. He 's never outside his office except in the morning when he arrives and he goes straight in, or in the evening when he leaves to go home. He had to be very impressed to leave his office."

Rachel smiled, "Good, that means I've got a better chance of getting the job, where's the office?"

Chuck pointed towards the back of the store to Emmett's office, "Over there, oh, I'm sure you're going to get the job. Good Luck."

Rachel walked back towards Emmett's office, she smirked when she walked in after knocking, Casey was standing there. If looks could kill, Emmett would have been dead. "Hello Mr. Milbarge, I'm Rachel Walker, I take it you've looked over my resume, are there any questions?"

"No, no questions Ms. Walker, I'd be glad to have you working in the Nerd Herd under Mr. Bartowski: do you have any problems with that because if you do I can always give you the lead position."

"No Mr. Milbarge, I have no problem working with Chuck, my sister is his girlfriend; I'm sure you've met her. So I've gotten a chance to know him, I'm fine working with him."

"Okay, well then I'll have John here get your badge and uniform, can you start today?"

Rachel held back a laugh, "Yes I can start today, no problem."

Casey grunted and motioned for Rachel to follow him. Once they were in the privacy of the break room he handed Rachel a badge, "I knew you would get hired so I made your badge this morning after the briefing. Your uniform is in your locker," He walks over to the lockers and hits one indicating that it's hers. "Entrance to Castle is through the lockers, there's a switch in your locker that'll open them up and lead to Castle, any sign of danger and you get Chuck down into Castle immediately and lock him in a holding cell or tie him up, I don't care what you do to him. Trank him if you have to; just keep him safe, as soon as he's safe you can get back up here to help us assess the situation."

"Fine Colonel, I can do that, but," The look on Rachel's face turned hard and Casey was actually scared, "I just wanted to let you know that while I may be a child, I out rank you, understood?!"

Casey just nodded and Rachel smiled, "Good, now then, I have a job to start."

Casey left the break room and Rachel followed a few minutes later dressed in a black mini skirt and white collared shirt with a dark gray tie. She walked over to the Nerd Herd desk, "Excuse me Mr. Bartowski, I was told to report to you when I was ready to start."

Chuck turned and looked at Rachel, "You now definitely look like a Nerd, no doubt about it, a definite Nerd."

Rachel smiled, "As long as I don't look like a geek, I'm good. You should have seen Casey when I walked into Emmett's office, he must have been trying to get Emmett to change his uniform cause he was looking at Emmett like he was about to kill him." She laughed, remembering what he had looked like. "I'm pretty sure he was gripping his gun too. So, what do we do here? I'm going to have to work sometime, I can't just do nothing, I suck at video games, but I can fix computers, phones, and any other electronics. I hated having to ask for help with my phone, but it was my job. Speaking of which, where are my phone and watch? Both are important; the watch was given to me by my step-dad, and the phone is so not CIA issue; I had to buy that thing with my own money."

Chuck thought for a minute, "Yeah, they're in Castle though, you'll have to get them later. As for what you'll be doing here, it's simple, you'll be fixing whatever customers bring in. There'll be orders in the cage, which is in the back to fix, and we'll go out on service calls, a lot of my calls are not real, if you get my meaning."

Rachel nodded, "So what do I do now?"

"Nothing, there's nothing to do right now; we're actually caught up, so you can sit here with me and man the desk, someone else could do that of course, but they're all conveniently avoiding work, as usual."

"So, we just sit here until someone calls or comes in or…"

"Or until we have a mission, yup, you can do whatever you want unless you actually have something to do. You could go get your phone and watch, make sure no one's in the break room of course."

"Of course, I'm not new to this you know? Even though I am young, I've been an agent for almost 8 years now. So, what do you do when there's nothing else to do?"

"Play video games, annoy Casey, keep Jeff and Lester from doing anything inappropriate, and well, make sure the rest of the green shirts are working. I'm sure Emmett's mad I didn't take the assistant manager position, but Casey is the second best for the job; he'll scare everyone into working. I'm sure of that."

"Casey's not all that scary, especially that time in Prague, I tell you, it's really hard to be scared of a man who's handcuffed to a bed and gagged in his boxers. He was one of my partners for that mission and I had to find Carrie and bring her back on target by myself. Of course I could have just taken the handcuffs off of Casey, but I didn't have the keys, and once you see someone like that, it makes it harder to trust that they can do their job. And I liked making him sit there."

Chuck laughed, then said, "Yeah, but he scares the rest of the employees, so as long as you act like you're scared and don't over-work -trust me in this store there is such a thing- you'll pass by the scrutiny of Emmett and any other employees."

"Okay, I'll lower my work-ethic for once. I'm gonna head over to the Orange Orange and Castle to get my watch, as well as talk to my sister, oh, what time does my shift start tomorrow?"

"Umm, I don't know, do you have something going on?"

"Yeah a routine check-up at the doctor, it's at 10. I could be in by 11:30 at the latest."

"That sounds fine. I'll tell Casey, he should be fine with it." As Chuck finished, his phone rang in his pocket. "Hello."

"_Hey Chuck,"_ It was Ellie

"Hey El. What's up?"

_"You should invite Sarah and her sister over for dinner tonight, Sarah's back at work right?"_

"Yeah, she's up and working now, I'll ask her if she's up to it."

"_Thanks, dinner will be served at 6:30, I gotta go; my shift starts in five minutes."_

"Alright, see you later sis, bye."

He hung up the phone after hearing Ellie do the same; he then turned to Rachel, who was standing there watching him with a blank face.

"I'm guessing that was your sister. What did she want?"

"She wanted you and your sister to come for dinner tonight."

"That sounds like a good idea, but it's really Sarah's choice."

"I know, I'll ask when she comes in to ask me about lunch in a few minutes."

Right then Sarah walked into the Buy More. Chuck waved and pointed at Rachel, Sarah waved and smiled. She walked up to the counter, "So I see you got the job."

"Yeah I did, there's nothing going on right now, but I got the job. I'm enjoying watching Casey, his uniform is hilarious."

"Yeah," Sarah agreed, laughing as she looked over at Casey. He was talking to Jeff and Lester; Lester had a camera behind his back so Sarah and Chuck assumed he was telling them to stop whatever they were doing. The vein in his neck was so pronounced both of them thought it was going to pop out of his skin. Sarah decided to give him a break and so she spoke into her watch, "Casey, there's a single white female making for the Beastmaster; you should take a break and try to sell it to her."

Casey looked over at the Beastmaster grills then over at her and nodded his thanks. He delivered one more threat to Jeff and Lester then made his way over to the grills.

Sarah breathed a sigh of relief knowing she had just saved the two perverts from a world of pain.

"So Sarah, Ellie just called and asked me to invite you and Rachel to dinner tonight. If you aren't up to it, that's fine, don't feel obligated."

"No, that's fine, I feel great…thanks to Rachel and all the workouts I've been doing. What time?"

"Uh, 6:30."

"Okay, we'll be there. So do you want to do lunch or not?"

"Uh, yeah, what are we having? I mean is it really lunch or did Beckman want to talk to us again?"

"No, Chuck we need to talk, so it'll be lunch. Do you want to go somewhere else or does yogurt sound good to you?"

"Despite the fact I have probably eaten way to much yogurt lately, yogurt is fine with me. What about Rachel?"

"Oh," Rachel cut in to answer, "I have some paperwork to do that covers my transfer over here, so I'll just eat in Castle."

"Okay then, 12 o'clock sound good to you Chuck?" Sarah asked as she turned to walk out of the store.

"Yeah, see you then."

**Castle **

**Burbank, CA**

**12:04 pm**

Rachel walked into Castle carrying her foam bowl of lemon flavored frozen yogurt; she had liked the flavor the week before and had chosen it to eat today. She had called the General during the lull of customers earlier that day requesting a private conference. The General had agreed to call at 12:05 and Rachel had wanted to make sure she was ready.

The screen flickered to life and the General's face appeared, "What is it that you wanted Burton?"

"Well General, my professional opinion of Agent Walker and the asset is that they are compromised, but I believe that the new intersect will allow Mr. Bartowski to protect himself. My assessment is that you allow Agent Walker and Mr. Bartowski to pursue a real relationship. There is no need to make both of them suffer as from what I have observed they are both desperately in love with each other."

The General considered this for a moment, "I'm aware that the asset and Agent Walker have feelings for each other, but I cannot allow them to pursue a relationship."

Rachel's face turned dark and dangerous as she addressed Beckman, "You forget who I am _Diane_, I said that they need to be allowed to pursue a relationship, I will leave the decision to you. Remember though, if I need to, I will take sole control of the Intersect Project, is that clear?"

Beckman was taken aback by this and she merely nodded. Rachel smiled, "Good, then I will talk to you when it's time for the next briefing." Rachel terminated the connection and decided to spy on Sarah and Chuck, just to see what Beckman would do.

**Orange Orange **

**Burbank, CA **

**12:06 pm**

Chuck and Sarah were standing at the counter awkwardly after Rachel left; neither wanted to bring up the subject they knew had to be discussed, first.

"So," Chuck finally said breaking the silence, "You said we needed to talk, what about?"

Sarah faltered, she really wanted to tell Chuck what she had told her sister earlier, but she was afraid of a 49-B getting sent in again. She didn't want to be reassigned, and right now, her job was to protect Chuck. She sighed and said, "About our cover Chuck; Ellie was talking to me the other day when I was getting checked out of the hospital. She's noticed tension between us since the wedding."

"Sarah, what about our cover? I mean, I know we said earlier that we'd be moving in together, but I don't think I could do that without going crazy. Everyone knows how I feel about you, even

Bryce knew, heck, Jill knew. Sarah I thought I knew how you felt, but, after Bryce died and I uploaded the new intersect, I'm not so sure."

"Chuck I…" at that moment Sarah's cell phone rang, it was Beckman, "Hold on Chuck, I have to take this." She answered the phone, "Walker secure."

"_Agent Walker, it has been brought to my attention that you have real feelings for your asset, is this true?"_

Sarah started to panic but she knew she had to answer the General, "Yes it is."

"_I have been ordered to allow you to pursue a real relationship with Mr. Bartowski if it is what you wish to do. Is it?"_

Sarah couldn't believe what she had just heard, Beckman was telling her she could date Chuck for real, she had to make sure it was real, "General, did I hear you correctly?"

"_Yes Agent Walker you did, do you wish to pursue a real relationship with Chuck Bartowski?"_

"Yes General, I do."

"_Then you may do so, I will inform Colonel Casey. Are there any questions?"_ The General waited then hung up as Sarah had no questions.

Sarah turned back to Chuck, tears of joy shining in her eyes. Chuck took it to mean that she had been reassigned, "Oh no, she reassigned you, didn't she." He was alarmed.

Sarah smiled, "No Chuck, I wasn't reassigned; actually, she told me something totally unexpected. Chuck, she said that we could really date, as in be real boyfriend girlfriend, not fake."

Chuck's eyes widened as he took in what she was saying, a smile spread across his face, "We can really date? Really?"

Sarah nodded and smiled the first genuine smile she'd had since Bryce's funeral a few weeks earlier. Chuck came around the counter to hug her, then he stopped, his face becoming serious, "Sarah, do you _want_ to date?"

"Yes Chuck, I do, I really want to have a real relationship with you. But I'm going to warn you, I'm still your handler and protector; I'm going to have to do my job; that means I'm probably going to carry weapons with me on our dates. Also I'm still an agent, I may still have to seduce men to get information; if we're really going to date, I need you to trust me, okay?"

The smile came back to Chuck's face and he nodded closing the distance between himself and Sarah in a hug, "Yeah, I can trust you, as long as you promise to do whatever it takes to come back to me, okay?"

Sarah nodded, "I will, I promise. I would say we should have our third first date tonight, but since your sister wants us to have dinner and we've already agreed to it, why don't we go out tomorrow night, okay?"

Chuck nodded before leaning down to kiss her gently.

In the Castle Rachel was watching all this on the security monitors; she smiled as she turned off the cameras to give them just a little privacy.

**Casa Awesome/Bartowski**

**Burbank, CA**

**6:15 pm**

Chuck arrived home 15 minutes before dinner was ready to find Ellie furiously cleaning the house.. "Hey sis, calm down, it's just Sarah and Rachel; you don't have to go to drastic measures."

"Yeah I know, but Dad called and said he was dropping by and I haven't seen him since the wedding and he said he was bringing someone with him, and I wanted to impress whoever was with him." Ellie was rambling as she went around the house cleaning and rearranging things. She was clearly nervous.

"Chill Ellie, I'm sure whoever it is that dad brings will be impressed by you. Oh and just to let you know, Sarah and I have worked everything out. We're thinking of moving in together, but we're not sure when that'll happen."

This statement stopped Ellie in her tracks and she squealed, "Oh I'm so glad I was starting to worry about you guys. I was afraid you were going to break up."

"Nope we've worked everything out, actually, she and Rachel should be here any minute."

Just then the doorbell rang. Chuck went to answer it, laughing at the timing, he knew it was Sarah and Rachel, he was right of course. "Hey Chuck," Rachel said, a large smile on her face. She pushed past him and went to hug Ellie.

"Hey Rachel. Hi Sarah," both stood awkwardly for a second before Chuck leaned down and kissed her on the lips, the kiss started out soft but turned passionate quickly the kiss portraying how much they loved each other; both of them were unaware of anything else until Devon's "Awesome!" broke through their kiss and brought them back to reality. Chuck blushed as he realized what had happened, and when he looked at Sarah was surprised to see that a matching blush was on her face.

"Sorry," he whispered and she smiled.

"Watch out lovebirds," Casey growled elbowing his way past them into the apartment, separating them in the process. He had taken the whole relationship thing in stride and had begun riding them even more than usual about it.

Sarah laughed and followed Casey into the apartment leaving Chuck to shut the door. Ellie was hugging Sarah and squealing about the information Chuck had told her earlier. Sarah was trying unsuccessfully to get a word in edgewise, while Rachel was smiling and laughing at her attempts. Casey and Devon were talking, about who knows what, and Chuck watched all of this with a contented smile; this was his family, he had no idea how true that statement really was.

The doorbell rang again and Chuck watched as Ellie's expression changed from one of joy to one of stress and nervousness as she remembered who it was that was standing outside.

Ellie took a deep breath. Chuck opened the door, his eyes widened in surprise as he saw his father and children standing outside the door.

"Hello Charles, it's good to see you again, I want to introduce you to your half-sister and brother, Leah Grace and Blake Stephen Bartowski."

From behind him, Chuck heard a gasp from Ellie as she heard what Stephen Bartowski said to Chuck. Then he heard a sob and the sound of someone running into the back, he turned just in time to see Rachel disappear.

"Dad," Leah said excitedly, "That was Ray, I know it was."

Orion's eyes widened as he took in that piece of information, _"Crap,"_ he thought, "Let me talk to her," he said walking into the apartment and back into Chuck's room. Rachel was sitting on the bed tears silently falling down her face. She tried to compose herself as she heard him walk into the room. When she saw who it was though, the tears began to fall again.

"Why?" she asked the simple question asking many.

"You know the reason Rachel," he answered, "because of the Intersect; I had to protect you and your siblings, and your mother. You know that's the reason I did what I did. You were aware of it before I was."

"I know why you left, but you were supposed to contact and stay in touch with us somehow, you know I could have figured it out. Why didn't you even try?" The look on Rachel's face was angry and hurt.

Orion's eyes begged for forgiveness as he answered, "I couldn't the house was being monitored, so I wasn't able to contact you..."

Rachel thought for a moment, the anger on her face fading away to be replaced with sorrow. "I see, I'm sorry for getting mad. How did they find you for Leah and Blake?"

"Well, the same way they found your sister: the CIA. I'm assuming Sarah is the elusive Jennifer I never met."

Rachel smiled, "Yeah that's her."

"Well, what do you say to going back out there and telling your sister and well the rest of our family?"

"Wow, okay this is weird, this means that Sarah and Chuck are step-siblings and dating, how is that going to work?"

"Well, I'm assuming they'll get past that the same way they've gotten past every other obstacle in their way. Speaking of which, is it still a cover for them?"

"No, I pulled the rank card this afternoon and they are now truly dating."

Stephen Bartowski smiled as he stood, pulling his step-daughter with him. "Good, I'm glad that was worked out; I was a tad bit worried after the wedding."

Rachel smiled and hugged him, "Me too, Dad, I'm glad just cause I don't have to watch them dancing around the subject anymore; one week made me feel like I was going crazy."

They both walked into the living room with smiles on their faces. Immediately they realized that nothing had changed, everyone was still standing where they had been left, except for Leah and Blake who had walked inside to allow the door to be shut. The tension was apparent until Leah saw Rachel and Orion enter. "Rachel," she cried running across the room and flinging herself into her arms, "I can't believe you ended up in LA too, I didn't think I'd see you again!"

"Hey Leah, how are you? Come here Blake." Blake ran over and hugged her, "I've missed you guys; I didn't expect you guys to come here either."

"I know, I can't believe it, Dad said we were coming to meet our step-brother and step-sister, I didn't expect you to be here." Leah said excitedly, "I mean, I thought that when you left last month it would be the last time we'd see you."

"I know, I thought so too, after mom died and we got split up, I didn't know when we'd see each other again." Rachel had glanced up at Sarah's face and was looking at her when Sarah made the connection. The agent training wasn't enough, Sarah's eye grew wide and her face took on a look of disbelief and shock.

Sarah looked at Rachel as if to ask if her assumption was true, Rachel nodded, "No," Sarah whispered, daring not to believe it. Rachel just nodded again. "This can't be happening," Sarah whispered before putting her wall back up to block her emotions.

Chuck watched the whole exchange with confusion changing into realization as he came to the same conclusion. Casey figured it out not long after and began laughing; he was going to have fun with this. He stopped when Rachel shot him an angry look.

Rachel watched Ellie and Devon's faces as they got more and more confused at what was going on. Rachel concluded that Chuck, Sarah, and Casey had figured it out because of their spy skills, nothing more, and she knew that even though Chuck didn't believe it, he was becoming a spy.

"What's wrong Sarah?" Ellie asked, trying to figure it out.

"I'll take this Sarah," Stephen Bartowski said, "Rachel, Chuck, Sarah, why don't you go fill Leah and Blake in on everything, okay?" He conveyed to them that Leah and Blake thought that Sarah was Jennifer and that they knew and understood what Orion did for the CIA.

"Okay," Rachel said, placing a hand on both Blake and Leah's backs and pushing them towards Chuck's bedroom, "Come on Sarah; come on Chuck."

Chuck and Sarah followed Rachel into the back room leaving Stephen, Casey, Ellie, and Devon in the living room. "Dad what's going on?" Ellie asked, "Why were Sarah and Chuck so upset, and why did John start laughing?"

"Eleanor, when I left you ten years ago, I moved to DC and married again. Those are my children. The women I married was Rachel and Sarah's mother." He paused to let that sink in. Ellie's eyes grew wide as she realized what Chuck and Sarah had realized earlier.

"That means that Sarah and Rachel are our step-sisters, but what about Chuck and Sarah…"

"Chuck and Sarah will figure everything out on their own Eleanor, they've made it this far."

Back in the bedroom Rachel had just finished explaining everything to Leah and Blake finishing with, "Remember, don't call her Jenny; she's Sarah now, her cover has to stay intact okay?"

Leah and Blake nodded; they had known Rachel and their father worked for the CIA for years after accidentally finding them working with the Intersect years earlier. They had kept the secret since from countless people: friends, family, and even their mother, who Stephen didn't want knowing anything to keep her safe.

"Well, now that that's taken care of, let's go see Ellie and Devon, you'll like them, promise. Come on." Rachel led them out of Chuck's bedroom leaving Sarah and Chuck alone. Sarah hadn't spoken to or acknowledged Chuck since they had found out about Leah and Blake, and it looked like she wasn't going to start.

Chuck sighed and moved from his desk chair to the bed to sit next to Sarah. He gently kissed her temple and put his arm around her. She stiffened and moved out of his embrace. He sighed, "Sarah, you told me today that you wanted to have a real relationship. Is that still what you want?" Sarah was still and silent for a moment then she nodded, Chuck continued, "Then Sarah, you can't close yourself off every time something happens, you have to know that this new information doesn't mean a thing to me. Yes we now know that we're step-siblings, to me that changes nothing. Does it change something to you?"

"No Chuck it doesn't, but what about Ellie, and Devon, and Rachel…"

"What about them? It doesn't matter what they think, it's not their decision to make whether or not we choose to be together. All that matters is what we think, which is why I'm going to you again. Do you want to have a real relationship?"

Sarah thought weighing the pros and cons and fighting the agent in her with everything. When she finally looked at Chuck's face she saw the despair on it as he thought he was losing her, she quickly answered. "Yes Chuck, I do want to have a real relationship, no covers, no bugs, and no spies. I want it all real. I promise, from here on out, it's all real." She leaned over and kissed him, sealing the promise that she had just made. When she broke it off Chuck leaned over and hugged her to him, holding her close, and they sat there, enjoying the feel and presence of each other. Both feeling safe and protected, sure that nothing could change that in their minds.

_A/N: Just a few clarifications here, the whole story told by Rachel about Prague is taken from 1x04 I made it up and took the part about Casey in bed from when Sarah found him in Carina's hotel room. Carrie was Carina's cover name in Prague. Another thing, the line about the Beastmaster grill is from the season 2 premiere when Chuck thanks Casey for always catching him when he falls. Now please press that little button on the bottom of the screen that says Review, as soon as I get reviews I will post again, or maybe I'll post before that, but I would still love reviews. PLEASE REVIEW!!! Oh, thanks for all the reviews that have come up until now, keep it up!_


	6. Chapter 6

_A/N: Here's the next chapter to Chuck vs. The Little Sister, I'm really sorry that some of you didn't like the last chapter, but I felt it was needed because I felt that Chuck and Sarah would grow closer because of it. Who better to tell all about yourself than someone who's going to find out anyway. It just seemed like the only way to get Sarah to open up, not in this chapter, but probably sometime in the next few. This chapter has the obvious surprise in it and another one as well, one I really didn't want to have, but my pen wrote it down anyway. Oh yeah, I wrote most of this chapter at summer camp, up until Sarah leaves in the beginning was written at home, the rest by hand in a notebook during free time at camp, there were some minor adjustments made when I was transferring it, but otherwise all 3,600 words written at camp, and yes I counted, are all present and accounted for. I wanted to give a shoutout to CSI Ana Lee, she's totally AWESOME and I got to talk to her for a while at camp, if you like CSI NY, I suggest reading her fics, they're really well written. Also I wanted to give a great big THANK YOU to BillAtWork who stepped in as my beta for this chapter, Wepdiggy was out of the house and couldn't beta this chapter for me, though if he gives me more changes I may edit this chapter tomorrow. So now, right after this message we'll return to Chuck vs. The Little Sister_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Chuck, Sarah, Casey, or a non-mentionable person cause mentioning his name would give the surprise away. I don't own Ellie either. I do however own Rachel Elizabeth Burton Walker and Dr Weller, and I'm hoping to own a pair of Chuck Taylor's soon, as soon as i can find some that is._

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**Chapter 6**

**Sarah's Apartment**

**Burbank, CA**

**May 29****th**** 2009**

**8:15 am**

They had stayed at Ellie's house until late, the tension was gone and everyone had enjoyed being together. Now both Sarah and Rachel were laying in bed, Sarah in hers and Rachel on the cot provided by the hotel. Neither wanted to get up, but both knew they needed to.

"So, Sarah, do you want the shower first or should I take it?" Rachel asked, not moving from the cot.

Sarah sat up, "What time do you have to be in today?"

"Not until 11:30, I have a routine checkup at 10."

"Well then, I'll go first, and you can go after me."

"Alright," Rachel said closing her eyes. "Wake me when you get out."

Sarah groaned as she got up. Rachel laughed and Sarah groaned again, "It's not funny, I am not a morning person."

Rachel laughed at that. When Sarah was finally in the bathroom, Rachel allowed herself to gently rub her stomach. It was beginning to grow larger. Luckily, no one had noticed yet. That wouldn't be the case for long. She had known instinctively two weeks earlier when she had taken the test that it would be positive. All the signs were there. She just didn't know how to tell anyone, Beckman included. She knew she was going to keep it. Money wasn't a problem. Neither was schooling, and she knew Sarah would be okay with it. Her only problem was her job.

She sighed. She had many options, most of which included quitting her job or taking an analyst position, even if only for a year or two. She wasn't even 15 though, and she knew she still had her whole life ahead of her. But the baby wasn't a mistake and she wasn't going to abort it just because she had made a mistake. The baby was there to stay and she was going to figure out everything else later. Right now, she had to worry about the baby, nothing else.

She lay in bed thinking about the baby's father and what he would think if he heard. He'd have no problem, she knew that. But she didn't know how to contact him without breaking her cover.

"I'm done, Rachel. Your turn." Sarah said, coming out wrapped in her towel.

Rachel groaned and sat up, " You know there are times when I really hate my job, mornings are usually those times," she said standing up and stretching, "I also hate hotel cots."

Sarah laughed, "Yeah me too, but this is my hotel room, so that's why you get it. I'll talk to Beckman later about getting a new apartment, especially if Chuck and I will be moving in together sometime soon. Oh, do you need a ride to the doctors?"

Rachel's eyes widened a tad almost imperceptibly, but Sarah saw it, "No, that's fine Sarah, you have to work, I can catch a cab, you don't need to bring me."

"No, there's no problem, I can just open late, no one ever comes in until the afternoon anyway unless it's Chuck or Casey, and they can call if they need me. That way you don't have to pay for a cab."

"Sarah, I'll be fine, you have to maintain your cover, which means you need to be in on time."

Sarah smiled and said, "I'm already late, it won't matter."

"Well then you'd better get going." Rachel said, "I don't want to see you here when I get out of the shower."

Sarah rolled her eyes, "Fine," she said, she waited until Rachel had closed the bathroom door then got dressed. Then she called Casey.

"Casey, secure. What do you want Walker?"

"I'm not going to be coming in until later today, Rachel's hiding something. I can tell. I'm going to follow her."

"Doesn't she have some doctors appointment today?"

"Yeah, but when I offered to give her a ride, she was adamant that I maintain my cover and go to the Orange Orange."

"Maybe she's just independent and doesn't want a ride, ever think about that?"

"Maybe, but remember, she's my sister. She's a lot like me. When she has something to hide, she makes people think she does so that they think she doesn't. Trust me something's wrong. Look, I think she's almost finished and I said I'd be gone by the time she finished her shower. I'll see you later, bye." Sarah hung up the phone, grabbed her Orange Orange apron and blue hoodie, and left the hotel room.

In the bathroom Rachel sighed. She had heard Sarah hang up the phone. She knew Sarah was worried and suspicious but she wasn't about to tell her anything. Not until she was completely sure of what she was going to do.

She got dressed, called a cab, and left the room, Nerd Herd uniform packed in her messenger bag. She went downstairs and looked at her watch. She calculated the time in her head and figured out that the cab should be there already.

She looked around immediately when she exited noticing that Sarah's Porsche wasn't in the front lot. She continued to look around and spotted it sitting around the corner. She was about to go confront Sarah when her cab pulled up. She climbed in and told the driver where to go.

"You know Sarah's just worried about you." The driver said.

Rachel leaned back against the seat and asked nonchalantly, "You know you're supposed to be dead?"

The driver laughed, "The CIA and NSA decided they wanted me alive this time."

Rachel laughed, "Yeah? Why would they want that?"

"Because I know the most about Fulcrum."

"Yeah? Well I know quite a bit about both Fulcrum and The Ring."

"Yeah, I was told to contact you about that. They said you were in an assignment here. Wonder why they wanted me to contact you?" The driver glanced through the rearview mirror and Rachel caught a glance of his bright blue eyes.

"Probably for information only, I picked my mission, and it's here."

"Of course you did _General_, you choose all your assignments." The scorn in the driver's voice was apparent.

Rachel's tone became cold and hard, "Listen to me, _Agent. Y_ou are supposed to be dead. You attended your own funeral, again. I can make the next time permanent. Got it?"

The driver gulped, "Yes General, I understand. May I ask a question?"

Rachel nodded her ice blue eyes beginning to soften.

"Why am I still here? The longer I'm in L.A. the greater the chance of my cover being blown. Especially by Chuck's family."

"Agent Anderson, you're still here for back-up. If at any time you're needed on Chuck's protective detail, I'll call you. For now though, avoid places where Chuck and his family and friends normally hang out."

"Alright General, one more thing. When are you going to tell Sarah?" The driver stopped the cab in front of Westside Medical Center's OBGYN's office.

"About what?" Rachel asked opening the door and stepping out.

As she walked inside she spotted Sarah's Porsche. She sighed; this was going to hard to explain. She walked inside and smiled at the receptionist saying, "Rachel Walker here to see Dr. Weller."

"Hold on," the receptionist said smiling. "Dr. Weller will be out in a moment."

"Thank you," Rachel smiled and sat down, noting the exits and hiding spots out of habit.

A few minutes later she was called back into the examination room.

There was a tall older man with graying hair waiting in there. "Hello, I'm Dr. Weller, and you are…"

"General Rachel Elizabeth Burton. I'm in charge of all the intelligence and law enforcement agencies." Rachel explained, pulling out her identification.

"Ah, yes, I've heard of you. Is there no security detail?" The older man was making notes.

Rachel shook her head, "Everyone's heard of me, but there are no pictures. I'm here for a check-up. I'm pregnant and need to be checked out. Don't tell anyone or write it in any reports."

Dr. Weller nodded, as the CIA's top obstetrician secrets weren't new to him. "Alright then, the first thing we'll do is a sonogram to determine how far along you are. Then we'll take some measurements and see how you're doing. Any idea when you conceived?"

Rachel nodded she remembered the day vividly. "It was February 17th."

"Alright," Dr. Weller said marking something down. "If you'll climb up onto the bed, the nurse will be here soon to take you to get your sonogram, okay?"

"Okay," Rachel said as she climbed onto the bed and laid back, still tired. Dr. Weller left the room and Rachel was left to her thoughts.

Five minutes later the nurse walked in, "Ms. Walker, if you'll follow me we'll get you into a sonogram room." Rachel got up and followed the nurse out of the room and into the hallway. The nurse spoke as they walked, "I hope you don't mind Ms. Walker, all of our sonogram machines are in use this side of the building. I'm going to take you into the actual hospital building, Dr. Woodcomb will be attending you."

"Alright," Rachel shrugged with a air of indifference. The name Woodcomb sounded familiar, but she couldn't quite place it.

The nurse led her into the maternity ward and got her settled in a room, "The doctor will be with you shortly," she said as she left the room.

Rachel nodded and checked her watch. She had arrived a little early, but her watch read 10:30. She was worried but she didn't have to be in until 11:30 so she would wait and see how long it would take before she worried unnecessarily. The door opened, Rachel immediately knew why the name Woodcomb was so familiar. The voice speaking outside her door was that of her stepsister, it was Ellie.

Ellie was looking at Rachel's chart when she walked in, "So Ms. Walker, how far along do you think…" Ellie stopped and looked up, recognition apparent on her face, "Rachel, I didn't know you were…"

"Ellie, listen, I'm here for a sonogram. Yes, I'm pregnant. Sarah doesn't know and I don't want her to know until I've made some decisions."

"You aren't going to…" Ellie began horrified.

"No, No, No," Rachel cut in quickly, "I mean decisions about works, where I'm going to live, those kinds of decisions. I've got a lot to figure out. I don't have to worry about money or school or anything like that. Mom left me a good amount of money when she died," Rachel sighed remembering her mother and knowing that much of her money was her own earned from working as the General in charge of Intelligence and Law Enforcement. "That and I graduated five years ago. I'm still working on other degrees, but I've got three and I can stop for now."

"When are you going to tell Sarah?" Ellie asked as she set up the sonogram machine.

"Well hopefully sometime soon." _But seeing as she followed me here, it'll probably be sooner than I'd like. _Rachel added to herself then continued, "By the way, do you know how long this'll be? I need to know if I should call Casey and tell him I'll be late."

"Shouldn't be long," Ellie said. "Now, this will probably be cold." She squirted gel onto Rachel's stomach, then, taking the wand began to move it around. "Now, how far along are you approximately?" she asked, keeping an eye on the screen.

"About three months, 12-15 weeks maybe. I know it was February 17th. It's only happened once. It was the night of mom's funeral."

"Well," Ellie said still looking at the sonogram screen, "according to the measurements I can see you look to be 14 ½ weeks along. Which puts your due date as…December 7th."

"Neat," Rachel said, "when can I find out the gender?"

"In about a month maybe." Ellie said, "Now here's the fun part, look." Ellie turned the sonogram screens o it was facing Rachel. She showed Rachel the baby and it's heartbeat.

Rachel was amazed and she said so, "Ellie, it's so amazing how the baby looks, it's so real. I can't believe that it's growing inside of me."

Ellie smiled, "I know it's so amazing, I'm so excited for you. It's one of the greatest gifts you could ever have, a child."

Rachel smiled, "I know, I'm excited, but I'm so nervous at the same time."

"I know, the prospect of becoming a mother scares me too. Devon and I want children, but I'm kind of scared."

"Well I think you'd be a great mom. You did a good job with Chuck. You should be proud of him, you really should."

"I am," Ellie sighed, "I just wish he'd put his degree to good use, you know? He's been at the Buy More for over five years now. Before my wedding he told me he had quit, when I returned from my honeymoon, he was back sitting behind that Nerd Herd desk."

Rachel sighed, she decided then and there that she was going to find a better job for Chuck, one that would make Ellie even more proud of him than she already was. " You know Ellie, I think Chuck'll do just fine wherever he is. I think he's just scared of change."

"Ellie nodded, "Yeah, anyway, here are your pictures, Dr. Weller should be back in a moment to finish the exam then you should be done."

Rachel nodded and tool the pictures. Ellie waved goodbye as she walked out of the room. Rachel checked her watch, it was 11:15, Even if she finished in the next 10 minutes she would be late. She pulled out her cell phone and sent a text to Sarah, it said, "Call Chuck and tell him I'll be late. Still at the doctors. Luv ya."

Sarah replied a minute later, 'K, do you need a ride to work?'

'No, thanks though.' Rachel replied then she put her phone up.

Dr. Weller walked in and said, "Well, Ms. Walker, or what would you like me to call you?"

"Agent Burton, or Ms. Walker is fine. The other agents don't know I'm the General and I'd like it to stay that way. Also there's Dr. Woodcomb, she's my step-sister. She doesn't know I'm an agent."

"Alright then, anyway everything looks fine. The heartbeat was normal as well as the size. I see that Dr. Woodcomb marked your due date as December 7th. Why don't you come back in about a month and we'll have another sonogram? You should begin to show more prominently within the next few weeks. Call me if you have any questions, alright?"

Rachel nodded and got up, "Alright, I will. Thank you." She followed Dr. Weller through the halls of the hospital and into the OBGYN's section. She paid the receptionist and walked outside. Sarah's Porsche was no longer outside, but the cab still was.

"Agent Anderson," Rachel said climbing into the back seat. "I'm going to be changing back here so keep your eyes up front. I'm only going to warn you once."

"Fine," Agent Anderson said. "Where do you want me to drop you off?" He started the cab and began to drive off.

"In front of the Orange Orange, I'd rather have Sarah see you than have Chuck or Casey see you."

The driver nodded and the rest of the ride was made in silence.

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**Orange Orange**

**Burbank, CA**

**11:45 AM**

Sarah had followed Rachel to the hospital and watched as she entered the OBGYN's office. She wasn't sure why Rachel had gone there but she had decided to let Rachel tell her if anything was wrong.

She had received the text messages from Rachel and passed the message onto Chuck. At the moment though, she was bored, very bored. There were no customers, and there hadn't been any missions since she had been shot. She was going stir crazy.

"UGHH!" She exclaimed, breaking the silence of the frozen yogurt shop. She was bored! Patience wasn't her strong suit when it came to things like this. Suddenly she had this urge to go see Chuck before lunch. Just because.

She flipped the sign on the door from Open to Closed and walked out. As she locked the door and turned around, she froze. Rachel was getting out of a cab. She looked on with confusion and surprise. The driver was none other then the man she had watched get dragged away dead. The man was none other than Bryce Larkin.

Sarah stormed over and knocked on the passenger window. The look on Bryce's face was priceless and for a second she considered taking a picture of it. "Sarah, I can explain…"

"You'd better be able to!" Sarah exploded, "You stay here." Rachel froze from where she was trying to sneak towards the Buy More. "Castle. Bryce. Rachel. Now! I'm going to go talk to my boyfriend and I'll deal with you later. Rachel I'll tell Emmett that you reacted to a medication the doctor gave you or something so that I can say you're at home. We're all going to have a serious talk later on."

"Sarah, I really don't want to talk to Casey without Chuck there." Bryce didn't say that what he really didn't want to talk to her without Chuck there to calm her down. He was a little afraid at the moment.

"Chuck is not going to be involved, Bryce. I wouldn't be involved except for the fact my sister is involved and it concerns my team. Now if you'll excuse me, I now have to go tell my boyfriend that instead of having lunch with him like I promised yesterday, I'm going to be with my ex who is supposed to be dead." Sarah couldn't keep the tears out of her eyes as she ran towards the Buy More.

Rachel sighed, "Come on, Bryce. We should go down to Castle and wait. Maybe she'll cool down before she gets back."

Bryce shook his head as he and Rachel walked towards the back entrance to the Orange Orange. Both he and Rachel knew that it was highly improbable that Sarah would cool down. They were both in trouble.

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**Buy More**

**Burbank, CA**

**11:55 AM**

Chuck watched as Sarah walked into the Buy More, the evidence of tears still on her face. Instead of coming towards him though, she headed for Casey. Chuck couldn't hear what was said, but when Casey's face turned red with anger, he knew it probably wasn't good.

Casey went towards the break room, presumably to go to Castle, and Sarah walked towards Chuck. Her look was sad and Chuck was afraid of what was going to be said, "I didn't do anything wrong did I?" he asked as soon as Sarah was close enough to hear him.

"What? No, Chuck, you didn't do anything wrong. But if you don't come over here and kiss me, you will have." Sarah answered with a small smile.

"Oh, right!" Chuck exclaimed, jumping over the counter and kissing Sarah on the cheek. Sarah grabbed the back of his head and kissed him chastely on the lips.

"You aren't getting away that easy Mister Bartowski," she said when they broke the kiss.

"You know how I feel about PDA," Chuck whined.

"Yeah, but after the morning I've had, I needed it. And after I tell you what I have to do over the lunch hour, it may be the last I get for a little while."

"What is it?" Chuck asked, nervous and curious at the same time.

"Well, Chuck, Bryce isn't dead, he's waiting in Castle, Casey and I are going to talk to him and Rachel over lunch."

"Sarah, I watched Bryce die. How could this happen? I feel like de-ja-vu all over again. What does this mean for us?"

"Chuck, nothing is going to change this time. I promise. I just got you. I'm not going to let you go so soon. Not even Bryce can change my mind."

"Are you sure? Bryce is like a super spy."

Sarah kissed Chuck lightly on the lips and said, "Yes, but Bryce can't compare to you. You're the one I think about night and day." _'You're the one I love.'_ She added to herself. She kissed him again, "Now trust me Chuck."

"I want to come," Chuck suddenly stated. "Please Sarah."

"Fine," Sarah replied after a moment's thought. "But you can't say anything and please don't get too mad at Bryce. Not because I still like him or anything, but because I don't want you to get hurt."

Chuck nodded, "Fine I won't, I'll stick by your side, I'll be like your shadow. I just want to know what's going on with Bryce and his imperviousness to dying. You do know that Casey's pretty much alone with Bryce right now don't you."

"Yup, your point is?" Sarah said as she kissed Chuck once again.

Chuck laughed, "Let's go." He took her hand and began pulling her towards the exit.

"Chuck! Where do you think you're going?" Emmett's voice came from behind them.

"I'm taking my girlfriend to lunch. I'll be back later." Chuck said without turning around.

"Well where's that new Herder? I thought she was coming in after her doctor's appointment."

"She had a reaction to a medication they gave her to help with some tests. So she's at home resting." Sarah said hoping Chuck would play along.

"Yeah she'll be back in either this afternoon or tomorrow." Chuck said, getting the message.

"Okay, hurry back, Chuck. John's disappeared and until one of you gets back, no one will be in charge of the store."

"You could always put Big Mike in charge until we got back. He'd do a good job." Chuck said walking out the door with Sarah behind him.

When they got to the Orange Orange Sarah stopped and said, "Just stay by me and be quiet and I promise everything will be fine. I promise Chuck."

Chuck nodded and Sarah pulled him into the freezer. She keyed in the security code and did a retinal scan. The door opened and they walked into Castle. Sarah held on to Chuck's hand as they descended the stairs. Chuck noticed that she didn't let go even as they stopped in front of the table.

Casey, Bryce, and Rachel were sitting silently at the table. The only sound was Casey clicking the safety on and off his gun. Bryce was pale as he watched Casey, and Rachel was trying hard not to laugh.

"I thought you said that Bartowski was staying in the store," Casey growled.

"He was going to stay, but then I realized that this concerns him too." _'And I couldn't refuse his puppy dog eyes. That and I wanted him with me.'_ Sarah added to herself. Her tone of voice dared Casey to challenge her. Chuck automatically snaked an arm around her waist in a sideways hug as if to say thank you.

Casey grunted in disdain before turning to Bryce, "Now let's get down to why we're here."

"How are you alive Bryce?" Sarah asked, still in Chuck's embrace and enjoying every second of it.

"Well it's a long story, one I really shouldn't explain without clearance." He glanced over at Rachel who nodded slightly. Sarah was confused but she didn't have much time to think about it because Bryce continued.

"After Chuck got the Intersect removed, Beckman came to me with a proposition. They still wanted Chuck as the Intersect because we had begun to hear rumors about Fulcrum only being a small part of The Ring." Bryce looked at Chuck, "We had to fake my death. We got some of our guys inside The Ring to help us. We knew that once I was dead he wouldn't be able to resist re-Intersecting himself, especially if he thought you were going to leave, Sarah. If he had tried to destroy it, I would have pressed a button that activated the Intersect and re-Intersected him myself."

"So everything was a ploy?" Sarah asked incredulously, "Roark's shooting? The fake Marine?"

"No, the guy who came to pick me up wasn't part of our team. Neither was the one that shot Roark and the Marines. I was wearing a bulletproof vest with bags of blood underneath that burst on contact. I had to keep conscious until after Chuck made his decision. That was hard because the bullet had hit me harder than I had thought and I had taken the same drug that Roark's right hand man took when you caught him in the Buy More." Bryce looked at Sarah, "My last conscious thought when I finally let go was of me being dragged away and you yelling Sarah, I thought that maybe we would have another chance, but I see I'm wrong."

"Bryce when I yelled then didn't mean anything, I was in shock, my partner of over five years looked dead and was being taken by domestic terrorists. I may not love you, but I care for you as a friend still. I love Chuck, Bryce, nothing's going to ever change that."

Sarah eyes widened as she realized what she had said aloud and that Chuck was standing right there. "Do you mean that Sarah? Or were you just saying it to get Bryce off your back?" Chuck asked, turning Sarah to face him.

"I…I…I meant it Chuck. I'm completely and totally in love with you." Sarah answered. She was scared. She had just opened herself up to someone and she was afraid of being let down.

"I love you too Sarah," Chuck said, not letting her down. He closed the distance between them and kissed her. They had been kissing for at least 30 seconds when they heard something.

"I think I'm going to be sick." Casey said with disdain, breaking them apart.

"You sure know how to ruin a perfectly good moment," Chuck said, annoyed at Casey. Sarah buried her face in Chuck's shoulder, her face bright red.

"Yeah, Yeah, but I don't think we're finished here." Casey turned to Rachel, "Where were you this morning?"

Rachel's face paled and shot Bryce a look, "At the doctor's, I already told you that."

"Rachel, I followed you, why were you at Westside's Obstetricians?" Sarah lifted her head, but she still held Chuck's hand.

"Sarah it was a check-up!" Rachel lied, not wanting to tell in front of Casey or Bryce, Chuck was okay, but the other two would be annoying.

"Then why couldn't I bring you?" Sarah asked.

"I needed to give Bryce some information on The Ring. I know a lot about them. I've been encountering them for years. Bryce is here to provide back-up protection for Chuck and his family while taking down Fulcrum and Ring operations nearby."

"I thought Fulcrum was disabled at Black Rock." Sarah said confused.

"Nope," Rachel said, "A man by the name of Marcel Diaz, a high ranking Ring officer has restarted Fulcrum."

Chuck heard Diaz's name and felt the new familiar feeling of a flash. "Marcel Diaz," he repeated, "ex-CIA, high ranking official in The Ring, also on the board of Elders in Fulcrum. He's also the regional commander for this area."

"He's an Elder?" Bryce asked, eyes wide.

"Yeah, one of the higher ones I guess. Who are the Elders?" Chuck asked.

"The Elders are Fulcrum's leaders. No one has ever seen them. They're always in shadow," Rachel explained. "We didn't know Diaz was an Elder. This makes things a little more interesting."

"Yeah, but you still haven't told us what you did this morning," Sarah said going back to the subject they had begun on.

"It was a check-up, Sarah. Just leave it at that for now, I don't have anything else to say, at least not now."

Sarah was about to say something when her phone rang, "Hello?" she answered.

"Hey Sarah, it's Ellie. If Rachel's anywhere nearby don't say my name."

"Okay, what's up?" Sarah was a little confused, but she didn't say Ellie's name aloud.

"I ran into Rachel today and I promised not to tell you, but I feel like I need to. So I will, Sarah. Rachel's pregnant."

"Thanks, I have to go I'll talk to you later." Sarah hung up the phone, just a little shell-shocked. She recovered quickly and said, "That was Ellie, Rachel, you have a lot of explaining to do. And you need to do it now."

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_A/N: I know, I know, I brought Bryce back. To all of you who's stories I've reviewed saying I hate Bryce, I do, but I had to put him in here because Team Bartowski's going to be getting big. In the next chapter we find out a few more things about Rachel and Sarah. Another surprise, I know, I love surprises. I hope to have the next chapter up soon, but I'm not sure, I've got the beginning written, in the notebook from camp, and I'm hoping to get enough to make a good long chapter. How about this, if you review, I'll give you a little spoiler if you want it, you have to tell me if you want it though. And feel free to ask me questions, I love answering questions, so please review, just press that little button and review, all of you that do are AWESOME!!!! Okay, how about this, the person that can come up with the best word that I can use instead of using AWESOME all the time will get a shout-out in my next chapter. Thanks for reading!_


	7. Chapter 7

_A/N: Hey new chapter, and up pretty fast too! YAY! It's a little shorted than some of the other chapters, but I'm okay with that since I like where it ends. Thanks to Wepdiggy for beta reading this chapter for me, I appreciate it, I have many problems with punctuation. I seem to have a fear of semi-colons, oddly enough. Anyway, thanks for all the reviews, I really do like them. I know that some of you are confused about a few things, and like i said, please feel free to ask either ina review, or even in a PM, either way I really want to help. So without further ado, besides the Disclaimer of course, the next chapter of Chuck vs. The Little Sister!_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Chuck, Sarah, Casey, Bryce, Emmet, the Buy More, Anna Karenina (i've never even read it, I've just seen the book and heard about it in another book), General Beckman, or much of anything for that matter. I do however own Rachel, Amanda, Diaz, and any other new character you may see. I do know how to do some ASL too if anyone wanted to know._

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Chapter 7

**Castle**

**Burbank, CA**

**12:10 PM**

Rachel sighed and sat down; she had stood when she was explaining about Diaz. "I guess Ellie told you then." She said quietly.

"Yeah, she did." Sarah said her tone slightly angry.

"Sarah, don't be mad please, I was going to tell you tonight, I was avoiding it here because I really didn't want to have to say anything in front of Casey and Bryce."

"When?" Sarah asked, Casey, Bryce, and Chuck were obviously confused and Sarah was going to leave them that way for now.

"February 17th, and then December 7th." Rachel answered both the date of conception and the due date at once. She unconsciously began rubbing her belly making small circles as if acknowledging the baby's presence.

Sarah's countenance softened as she saw the simple gesture, "So that's why you went today?"

Rachel nodded a smile on her face, "Yeah, but can we talk later? I'm late for my shift at the Buy More."

"You don't have to go in today; I already told Emmett that you were at home sleeping off the ill-effects of a medicine they gave you."

"Well I can tell him that I felt better after eating and so I can now work, I can't very well take the second day off now can I? Especially considering everything else that I have to consider right now."

"Alright, I should probably get back to my job as well, though customers would be nice."

"How about this, Chuck and I will get some Yogurt on our way out. Then you'll have had customers."

Sarah smiled, "I like that idea." She reached out her hand to help Rachel up and Sarah was afraid for a moment that Rachel would reject it, but she didn't have to worry long. Rachel reached up and allowed Sarah to help her up, a small smile on her face.

"Come on Chuck." Rachel said heading up the stairs towards the exit into the Orange Orange.

"Is it just me, or does she sound exactly like you Sarah?" Chuck asked, getting up and following Rachel.

Sarah laughed remembering the times she had said the exact same thing to Chuck, she followed them calling back behind her, "Don't kill each other, Casey."

Bryce laughed nervously, he knew that Sarah was only half-way teasing, Casey was still looking for every opportunity to shoot him, and he wasn't very excited. "Well, what should I do?" he asked.

"Wait for Bartowski and Burton to leave, then go to the Buy More and help me and Burton with surveillance. Don't worry; we'll make sure you aren't recognized." Casey grunted then left Castle through the Buy More break room entrance.

Bryce watched on the monitors until Chuck and Rachel left the Orange Orange, Chuck and Sarah kissing before he left. Then he walked out of Castle and into the Yogurt shop. "Do you have a minute?" He asked Sarah who was wiping down the already spotless counters, she was truly bored.

"Not for you Bryce, I'm busy." She didn't look at him as she spoke.

"Sarah, why are you so mad at me?" Bryce was confused, he knew that she had fallen for Chuck, but he thought that there had to be something still between them, even if she didn't feel it right now. "We had so much going for us; we were great for each other."

"I'm not mad at you Bryce, I'm mad at Beckman. And we did have a lot going for us, but I've been around Chuck long enough to know that what you and I had isn't anything compared to what he and I share now. Even when we said that we were going to keep it professional, we couldn't. Bryce, I'm totally and completely compromised, and I'm okay with it."

"Sarah, you're a professional, you know what happens to people with relationships, it's dangerous."

"I know, and so does Chuck, but Bryce, we've been fighting our feelings and going against them since day one, Beckman gave us permission and we took the opportunity to be real. Now you need to get to the Buy More for surveillance, I have a customer; remember to keep the bill of your cap low on your face."

Bryce nodded and left the Orange Orange, so caught up in the conversation he had just had that he failed to notice the gun tucked in the waistband of the customer who walked in behind him.

**Buy More**

**Burbank, CA**

**12:20 PM**

Chuck and Rachel were sitting at the Nerd Herd desk eating their yogurt as they watched the customers milling around in the store. They were making small talk as Chuck showed Rachel the different employees and told her about each one of them.

Chuck all the sudden felt his phone vibrate, "Hold on a sec Rachel, my phone." Rachel nodded and he answered, "Hello, this is Chuck."

_"Chuck, it's Sarah, you need to be prepared, I'm bringing the general over right now to talk to you."_

"Wait, the general? Why?"

_"Don't worry about it, everything's okay, Love You."_

"Yeah, Love you too."

_"Bye Chuck."_

Chuck stared at his phone as he hung up. "Weird, why didn't Beckman say anything yesterday?"

"About what Chuck?" Rachel was immediately alert.

"That was Sarah, she said that she was bringing the general over here to talk to me, I don't know why she wouldn't have said anything."

Rachel's spy senses began tingling and she went to high alert, "Okay Chuck, I'm not going to send you to Castle, but I need you to follow my lead, whenever Sarah comes in, I need you to pretend that I'm not Sarah's sister, I'm just a new employee that you've taken under your wing. You have no idea that I'm CIA, this is very important. Understand?"

Chuck nodded, and Rachel sighed, "Hopefully they'll take me and not you."

"Why would you want them to take you, and if you're not CIA, why would they have any interest in you?"

"Because Chuck," As Rachel talked she took her weapons off of herself and hid them in the Nerd Herd desk, "this is Fulcrum, not The Ring, they don't know that you're the Intersect, and they won't because I'm sure they're looking for Orion and no one else, they'll recognize me as one of Orion's last known contacts. They'll take me. I'm going to be Rachel Burton, so don't act surprised."

Chuck nodded and gulped in apprehension, "Won't they know that I rescued my father from them?"

Rachel shook her head, "No, Roark didn't think to let the Elders know, he was too busy trying to get the Intersect cube finished so that he would could move up in Fulcrum hierarchy. He did let them know that he had heard Orion was alive, and so knowing them, they're looking for him."

Chuck gulped and nudged Rachel, she looked and saw Sarah walk into the Buy More, face a mask, but fear evident in her eyes, there were three men behind her, all three were obviously armed and one had a gun to Sarah's back. They walked up to the counter. Rachel felt the familiar feeling come on, like an almost sneeze, and she knew that the man standing to Sarah's right was none other the Fulcrum Elder Marcel Diaz.

"Hello, I'm Rachel Burton, how can I help you today?" She asked with fake cheerfulness, she knew Chuck wouldn't be able to say anything, he was probably still freaking out from the flash she was sure he'd had.

Diaz's face changed, he had been looking for a Chuck Bartowski only because they now knew that Orion's last name was Bartowski, but this was even better, he knew that Rachel Burton was the last known contact of Orion, this was turning out better then he had planned.

"Ms. Burton, I'm going to need you to come with me." He said after thinking it through.

Rachel gulped, "Why, what's going on?"

"We just need some information, that's all Ms. Burton."

"I'm sure I can give you any information right here," Rachel baited; she wanted to make sure she was correct in her assessment.

"We're looking for your stepfather, and you're the last one who saw him." Diaz said with a smile, "If you'll come with us and give us what we need we'll let you go."

"I'm sorry, I don't know where he is, it's been about five years since he left, and I'm not sure where he is right now."

"Well, we have to be sure of that so you should come with us." Diaz drew his gun and pointed it at Rachel, "Let's go now. Agent Walker, if you try to follow us, we'll shoot her, then Mr. Bartowski over there, understood?"

Sarah nodded and watched as they led her younger sister away, she was worried, but her first priority was Chuck's protection, and her professional instincts had kicked in.

"Chuck, why did Rachel say her last name was Burton? I thought we had agreed she go by Walker here."

"She said that they were looking for Orion and that they probably were looking for me since they knew Orion's last name, not that he had been captured or rescued by me. She's listed as his last known contact, so I guess they'll try to get the information from her."

"Chuck, I know she said she had worked with Orion on the Intersect, but did she say anything about downloading it?"

Chuck thought for a second, "No, I don't think so, why?"

"Because, I think I saw her flash right before introducing herself."

Chuck's eyes widened, "Really? Wow, that means I'm not the only Intersect, or the only one capable of handling the Intersect."

"Yeah but that also means, that Fulcrum has an Intersect. Head down to Castle, we're keeping you there until we've figured everything out, make up some excuse, I don't care what. On your way down, call your father and tell him to meet us, we're going to need his help I think. I'll get Casey and Bryce."

Chuck nodded and headed towards the break room pulling out his phone as he went. He had just entered Castle when his dad answered.

_"Hello, this is Stephen."_

"Dad, it's Chuck, Sarah said to tell you that we need you to come to Castle immediately, we kinda have a problem."

_"Alright Charles, I'll be there as soon as I can, what should I do with Leah and Blake? They won't start school until September, so what do I do with them?"_

Chuck thought for a moment as he sat down in Castle's main room. "Umm, they know about everything you do right?"

_"Yes, Beckman's given them a pretty high security clearance seeing as I can't hide much from them since they're my responsibility."_

"Then bring them, and make sure they bring plenty to do since we don't have much in the way of things for kids."

_"Alright, we'll be there soon, goodbye."_

"Bye dad." Chuck hung up his phone and thought for a second before looking around carefully, seeing that no one was around he quickly went over to the computers and began typing something in. He remembered Rachel saying something about having a GPS in her watch, and with Fulcrum not thinking she was an agent, they weren't going to check her for bugs or tracking devices, he hoped.

The computer wouldn't acknowledge any signal coming from the tracker without a security code, and he didn't know what it was. He hoped his dad did, or Rachel might be in serious trouble.

Meanwhile, back at the Buy More, Sarah casually walked over to where Bryce was standing browsing. She bumped into him and whispered, "We have a problem, Castle, now." Bryce nodded imperceptibly and began to make his way out of the store. Sarah looked around frantically for Casey before finally seeing him over next to the Beastmaster's trying to sell one.

She made her way over and he acknowledged her presence with a slight nod. She moved and began to browse a stand nearby without actually looking. "What is it Walker?" Casey asked knowing something had to be wrong for her to come into the store so soon after they had left Castle.

"Rachel was taken by Diaz, Chuck's in Castle, along with Bryce, and he called Orion, we need to get over there."

Casey nodded, "I'll be over soon, I can't just leave the store again, Emmett would freak, especially seeing that Chuck's gone already."

Sarah nodded and left the store quickly making her way across the street to the Orange Orange, Bryce was waiting outside the door. She unlocked it and they made their way down into Castle. Chuck was sitting at the computer typing furiously; three times before he noticed they were there he would bang on the desk before going at it again.

"Chuck what are you doing?" Sarah asked, it startled Chuck and he turned quickly.

"Oh, I'm trying to find out where Rachel is using the GPS in her watch, but I guess in order for it to be activated or something you have to have a security code, and I don't know it."

"Well, maybe your dad does Chuck." Sarah said walking over and sitting on his lap, she was worried for Rachel, but she had read Rachel's file and knew that she could take care of herself. But Sarah knew that Rachel had a lot more to consider, and Sarah didn't know how she was going to work it out.

For the next ten minutes, Chuck, Bryce, and Sarah waited for Casey and Orion while getting as much information together about Diaz that they could. Sarah called in requesting a conference with Beckman and it was granted, Beckman would be waiting as soon as everyone was present and accounted for.

Stephen Bartowski arrived, Leah and Blake in tow. The two kids were quiet as they sat down in the corner. Chuck watched and could see how much they were like him and Sarah it was a little scary. Leah had long brown hair and bright blue eyes while Blake had curly blonde hair and deep brown eyes. Leah wore glasses and they didn't look bad on her, they actually accentuated her looks, making her look dainty. Chuck could tell that the eight year old was smart from the book she carried with her, it was Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, he had never read it but he had heard about it through reputation and knew it was a tough book to read. Blake on the other hand pulled out a Nintendo DS, Chuck laughed softly, and the six year old was going to be very much like him he was sure.

"Alright, what's the problem?" Orion asked, breaking into Chuck's reverie.

"Rachel was kidnapped by Marcel Diaz, a Fulcrum Elder, he's beginning to resurrect Fulcrum and he was looking for you. He went into the store looking for Chuck because of the same last name, but Rachel was your last known point of contact." Sarah said, "Right now we're trying to track her watch but it needs a security code to access its coordinates, we were hoping you knew it."

"I do," Orion said walking over to the computer that was asking for the security code. Chuck watched as he typed it in, it was a long series of numbers and letters that Chuck didn't understand, and he certainly didn't know how his father remembered them.

All the sudden a dot appeared on the screen, it was stationary, and it was a green glow, unlike the other tracking devices Chuck had seen. All the sudden it turned red, and then it flashed three times before disappearing.

"What just happened?" Sarah asked, Chuck could tell she was worried.

"Rachel felt us locate her watch; apparently she doesn't want us using it that way it can't be found. She wants us to check it every three hours, just in case, if she leaves it green that means she's in trouble, yellow means that she wants us to get her, and red means she's fine."

"So she's okay?" Sarah asked, obviously trying to relax.

Orion nodded, and then looked up as Casey entered the room, "Sorry, I had a few problems in the store, I can't wait till I leave that place. What'd I miss?"

Sarah filled him in then called the General to let her know they were all assembled. The screen turned on and showed General Beckman sitting behind her desk, impeccable as always. "Where's Agent Burton?" The General asked, Sarah hadn't told her what had happened, only that they needed to speak.

"She's the reason we requested the teleconference, she was kidnapped by Marcel Diaz about thirty minutes ago. We traced her using the tracker located in her watch, but before we could get the address she turned it off."

"How did she turn it off?" Beckman asked, looking at Orion for the answer, as she knew he would know it.

"It's a safety precaution built into the watch, it tells her when she's being tracked, and if it buzzes a certain way she knows whether or not it's me or someone else. She can choose to turn it off so that it can't be found as well, this is what she chose to do, but she did indicate that we should check her location every three hours."

"So I'm assuming that if she was able to tell you not to look for her that she's safe?" Beckman asked, apparently worried about Rachel.

"Yes General; she's safe."

"General, when Diaz walked into the Buy More I was sure I saw Rachel flash, along with Chuck, is that possible?"

"I don't know, is that possible Orion?" Beckman asked turning to the elder Bartowski.

Stephen's face was pale as he answered, "Very possible, I'm sure she's probably as up to date as Chuck is, though, maybe without the special skills."

"How does she have the Intersect?" Sarah asked.

"Easy, she tested it on herself before Project Omaha, she knew exactly what she was doing and she retained as much data as Chuck did. I'm guessing with her job for the CIA and NSA updates were easy to come by, and important to have. Right Beckman?"

"Yes, I can see how she'd get updates, and why she'd need them. I myself didn't know she was an Intersect, but I can see her with easy access to the updates."

"General, does this mean we need to extract her from Fulcrum?"

Beckman thought for a minute before answering, "No, leave it to her discretion, it's her choice and I know she'll make the right one. We can have a back-up team on stand-by though in case she needs extraction. If there are no questions." Beckman terminated the conference and left the team standing there in silence.

Sarah was the first to leave the room, and soon after they heard the unmistakable sound of fists and feet hitting the punching bag.

"I guess I should probably go talk to her." Chuck said getting up.

"You do that Bartowski, have fun." Casey said smirking as the Nerd walked out of the main room of Castle.

**On Route to Fulcrum Base**

**Burbank, CA**

**12:45 PM**

Rachel was sitting in the back of an SUV as Diaz and his men took her to Fulcrum's new base of operations. She wasn't blindfolded and she was watching intently where she went, just in case she got a chance to get a message back to her team.

They'd been driving for almost thirty minutes when her watch buzzed gently, a sign she knew meant Orion was tracking her, she discreetly pressed a button on the side of her watch, then another three times, then she held the first one in until it buzzed again indicating that the tracker was off. She knew Orion would figure everything out and explain it all to her team.

The SUV pulled up in front of a large office building downtown, she couldn't see the sign because they finally blindfolded her as they took her inside the building. She wasn't stupid, she counted her steps. Once inside fifteen steps before they turned right, then another ten steps before opening a door and heading a flight of stairs, fifteen steps down then turn to the left and three more steps down. Thirty-five steps before turning left then five steps before entering the door directly to the right.

She was sat down and cuffed her legs to a chair before the blindfold was taken off. Only one of them men that was in the car with her was still there and he left the room. Rachel had time to look at her surroundings, she knew that they were in a holding facility much like Castle, and she was now in an interrogation room. She waited and went over what she would say in her mind, of course she would say she hadn't talked to Orion in years, but if it came to torture, she didn't know what she'd do.

She knew that she could survive torture, but she was concerned about the baby. She thought about letting them know she was an Intersect, but she didn't want them to know she was a spy, and she definitely didn't want to betray her country.

As she sat there contemplating these things, she heard the door open, since it was behind her, she couldn't see who it was at first and as the woman walked around she only saw the brown curly hair that was caught up in a pony tail. As she turned, the first thing she was struck with was that the woman was carrying a toddler, probably around three years of age. The second thing was the fact that the toddler was using ASL (American Sign Language) to communicate with the woman. The third was the most shocking, the woman's blues eyes and the familiarity of the woman's face.

Rachel couldn't speak, so instead, as soon as the woman was facing her, she signed, "Amanda?"

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_A/N: YAY cliffy!! I love writing cliffy's but hating reading them, so sorry, and I'll try to post soon. I know you're all wondering who Amanda is, and why Rachel knows her. Yes I had an 8 year old reading Anna Karenina. Yes Rachel pretty much know her exact location, but I don't have a clue, so I'm going to have to figure that out. No Rachel won't get badly tortured, they don't even know she's an agent. Yes she may get hurt, but the baby will be fine. Okay, please review cause I love reviews and I love responding to them._


	8. Chapter 8

_A/N: Alright everyone, all 2 or 3 of you who are still reading and reviewing and if you're reading, please review, I really want to know if this is good or not, cause if it's not, then well, I need to know what I need to fix. Well, here's chapter 8, 6 more days and I'll be 16, I'm really excited, I wanted to finish the chapter and post it before so I wasn't worried about not having posted in a while. I had actually hoped to have this finished sooner, but circumstances, specifically ones where I ended up with bronchitis resulting in a lack of sleep, it took me a lot longer than I planned. This chapter starts out where the last one ended with Rachel in Fulcrum's clutches. Hopefully this chapter is good and everyone likes it! A great big thank you to **Wepdiggy **for beta reading this for me, he's an AWESOME beta reader and an AWESOME writer as well. If you haven't read his stories, which is highly improbable, but if you haven't read them then I suggest you do, especially "Sarah vs. The Alternate Universe" that is an amazing story and a really great portrayal of what would happen if circumstances were switched. Anyway, thanks for reading and please review, now without further ado, save a disclaimer, I now give you Chuck vs. The Little Sister chapter 8._

_Disclaimer: I have a birthday coming up and I hope that I'll get the rights to Chuck, along with a pair of Chuck Taylors, an I-pod touch, or an I-phone. The last three things on this list are more probable than the first. So seeing as I probably won't get any of those things for my birthday, but I'm sure to get money, I most likely won't own Chuck then either. Anyway Chuck is owned by NBC, WB, and Subway too I guess._

* * *

Chapter 8

**Fulcrum's New Center of Operations**

**Undisclosed location **

**May 29****th**** 2009**

**12:50 PM**

As she turned, the first thing she was struck with was that the woman was carrying a toddler, probably around three years of age. The second thing was the fact that the toddler was using ASL (American Sign Language) to communicate with the woman. The third was the most shocking, the woman's blues eyes and the familiarity of the woman's face.

Rachel couldn't speak, so instead, as soon as the woman was facing her, she signed, "Amanda?"

"Rachel?" the woman said a slight lisp to her voice. "Why are you here?"

"They want me to tell them where Stephen is; I haven't seen him in who knows how long." Rachel signed and spoke as she answered Amanda.

"Why are you in California though?" Amanda asked.

"Umm, after mom died, her will stated I was to go to Jenny, remember?"

"Right, I do; I remember contesting that."

"Yeah, anyway, we found Jenny, so I'm living with her; she lives in Burbank."

"Really? I didn't think Jenny would live in a place like California."

"Neither did I, but she does."

"Mommy," the little girl interrupted their conversation signing the word and saying it.

"Yes Kara?"

"When can I see Daddy?"

"I don't know, he said he'd be in here soon. We'll just have to wait sweetie."

"Okay." Kara seemed satisfied for the moment.

"So, have you gotten married?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah, I've been married for four years now," Amanda said showing Rachel her thin gold wedding band and single diamond engagement ring.

"So, who'd of thought it? Amanda, the sister everyone said was the least likely to ever get married, is the first one to tie the knot. Congrats sis, who's the lucky guy?"

"Thanks, his name's Marcel Diaz, he's amazing."

"Neat, do I get to meet him?" Rachel asked in a slightly forced tone.

"I hope so; he said he'd be here soon to see Kara."

"How old is Kara?" Rachel asked, looking at the little girl sitting on Amanda's lap singing softly to herself.

"Almost three," Amanda turned her attention to her daughter, "Kara, I want to introduce you to someone."

"Okay, who?" Kara asked, looking up at her mother.

"Her," Amanda pointed at Rachel, "That is my sister, your Aunt Rachel. Rachel, this is your niece Kara Elizabeth Diaz."

"It's nice to meet you Kara." Rachel shook hands with the girl.

"Hi." Kara giggled shyly and buried her face in her mother's chest.

At that moment the door opened, Kara jumped off her mother's lap exclaiming, "Daddy! You're here!"

"Hey baby," Rachel was able to turn just enough to see Marcel Diaz swing Kara into his arms.

Amanda stood up and made her way towards her husband, Rachel watched as Amanda kissed Diaz. She saw how happy they looked; she wondered how much of it was Diaz acting and how much was real. She looked closely at Diaz, years of spy training having taught her how to read people. The way he looked at Amanda and Kara told her that maybe he wasn't acting; his eyes said that he loved them.

She placed her hand on her slightly swelling stomach wondering how her baby's father would react if she ever got the chance to tell him. She hoped he would love the baby like she did. '_Control yourself Rachel; you have other things to worry about right now, like how not to get Chuck or Orion captured by Fulcrum.'_

"Marcel, I need you to meet someone," Amanda said from behind, "I don't know if you meant to, but you took my sister earlier, I don't know why you would do that sweetie."

"Your sister Mandy?" Marcel asked with fake curiosity, Rachel knew he had probably gleaned that information earlier. "Well, what's her name?"

"Marcel, this is my sister Rachel," Amanda led Marcel around the table so that he was facing Rachel, who was still chained to the chair, despite her efforts to free herself. "Rachel, this is my husband and Kara's father, Marcel Diaz."

"It's nice to meet you Marcel." Rachel said politely, watching Diaz's face for any clues he knew she had worked on the Intersect project with Orion.

"The pleasure is all mine Rachel." Marcel offered his hand to Rachel and she accepted, barely able to hide the grimace of disgust at having to be polite to a Fulcrum Elder. Amanda kissed Marcel and left the room, carrying a protesting Kara with her.

"Marcel, why am I here?" Rachel asked.

"Well, Rachel, the people I work for need to know where your stepfather is."

"Why would I know? I haven't seen him since I was 11; I really don't know why you would think I would know."

"Well, Rachel, you see, you are one of his last known contacts." Marcel was watching Rachel closely for any sign that she might be lying, she was, but he wasn't able to ascertain that information because of her training.

"That doesn't mean I know where he is, he hasn't contacted me in I don't know how long."

"I know he hasn't, but as I said, you are one of his last known contacts, of which there are two; we have the other in custody as well, you're here to insure his cooperation." Marcel smiled and Rachel was truly scared for the first time, the look on his face was one of pure evil. Rachel unconsciously covered her stomach, as if she could protect her baby from the evil sitting right in front of her.

"What does that mean?" Rachel asked nervously.

"Well, first off we'll let the two of you get acquainted, then we'll do some things that'll make him talk." Marcel said, "It's too bad you're my sister-in-law; if I'd known earlier we would have gotten someone else. But you are our best shot, you know both Orion and his other contact, it's perfect."

"Who's Orion?" Rachel asked, wracking her brain for someone that knew Orion and her, she couldn't think of anyone except Sarah and Chuck; but they had still been safe when they had taken her.

"You may know him as Stephen Bartowski, he works for the CIA."

"My step-dad works for the CIA?!" Rachel acted surprised, not sure what Marcel was getting at.

"Yes, didn't you know that?" Rachel shook her head and he continued, "Well then, I guess you wouldn't know that his son, Chuck I think it is, has some connection with the CIA as well."

"No, I had no idea, I wouldn't think Chuck was capable of working for the CIA; he's too nice."

"That's not all, his little girlfriend, the one working across the street, is CIA as well."

Rachel made her eyes widen as she thought about how crazy he thought it must sound to her, if only he knew what she did. "Sarah, CIA, I guess that makes sense, I mean, how else could she afford that Porsche on the salary she would make as a yogurt server."

"Yeah, well I'm sure it'll surprise you to learn that the assistant manager at that little store you were at is working for the NSA."

"John Casey, that actually doesn't surprise me, he's kinda scary. I heard he used to be military, so he joining the NSA makes sense."

"Yeah, well I've left the best for last, the one person who I'm sure you never thought would be working for the US government." Marcel paused as his phone rang; he answered it and left the room.

Rachel was left alone to her thoughts and she thought fast, hitting a button on her watch she spoke quickly and urgently, "I have a plan, I'm going to turn the mic on when Diaz comes back in the room. I need you to follow along, please, Dad, Jen, Mandy's here. I don't know if she's good or not, but she definitely complicates things, have Beckman online."

Quickly glancing around she hit the button that had turned her tracker off earlier; she looked at the display screen on her watch, it showed that the dot was still red, she hit it once more changing it to yellow, then she sent her recorded message to them, knowing it would show up on the computer screen as written words.

She discreetly turned her mic on as Diaz entered the room, "Sorry, as I was about to say, the one person who you'd be surprised to find working for the government, is one person I think you'd be surprised to see in California as well." Diaz motioned to someone outside the door through what Rachel assumed was a two-way mirror.

The door opened and Rachel turned to see who was being led in, her breath caught in her throat at the person standing there, but she calmed herself quickly. Diaz motioned for them to bring the person forward; it was a young man, 16 at the oldest, with dark brown hair and light blue eyes. His head was hanging down and he wouldn't look at anyone in the room. Rachel willed herself not to go into combat mode. Diaz had been right, she was surprised to see him standing there; for the 3rd time in 20 minutes, Rachel let her hand drift unconsciously to her stomach and rubbed gently.

Diaz caught the motion this time and smiled, "Maybe there'll be more leverage than I originally thought; torturing his girlfriend is good, but threatening his child may be even better."

A strangled cry rose from Rachel's throat before she could stop it, "Please no, don't hurt my baby, not my baby." Tears began falling and she silently cursed herself for it, but she was now truly scared.

The young man's head had whipped up when Diaz mentioned the baby and he now spoke, "Diaz, I swear, if you harm Rachel or the baby, I'll kill you."

Diaz laughed and punched him, "You're in no position to make threats. Take him away."

The guards led the young man out of the room, Rachel was still sobbing. "Please, I don't mind getting hurt, just don't hurt my baby."

Diaz smiled at her, "I can't promise anything, I need his cooperation."

Rachel knew it was time to implement her plan, she hoped Sarah was willing to help, "What if I was to join you? I'm guessing you don't work with the government but that's okay. I can help with computers and I'll even try to get my sister to join, just don't hurt my baby."

"Amanda's already joined, but we could always use your help with computer things." Diaz said, his thoughts playing out across his face.

"I meant Jennifer, I'm sure if she knew that Mandy and I were a part, she would help. I mean she doesn't really like the government I think, she and my dad were always on the run from the law seeing as my dad was a con man. I'm sure what with her knowledge of changing identities she could help you. Oh, she's real good at throwing a knife too."

Marcel smiled, "Well, that's not such a bad deal, you help us out, get your sister to think on taking the job, we won't hurt your baby, I can't say you won't get hurt, cause we still need information from your boyfriend."

Rachel nodded, "I should call Jenny then, let her know I'm okay right now and that you have a job offer for her."

Marcel nodded, "Give me five minutes and I'll let you call her."

Rachel nodded and Diaz left the room, she spoke quickly into her watch, "Sarah please help me here, I don't want to lose this baby, Beckman, this plan stays." Sighing she leaned back in her chair, still shackled to by her ankles, Diaz had been right; she hadn't expected her boyfriend to be NSA. She should have known being as she was in charge, but even that didn't mean she knew who all the agents were. Nope, she never would have guessed that Brian Casey was NSA, just like his uncle.

* * *

**Castle **

**Burbank, CA**

**1:00 PM**

Sarah had been angrily attacking the punching bag for the last 15 minutes or so; Chuck had tried to talk to her, but she had ignored him. All she could think about was that her sister wasn't safe. No one knew it, but she had promised her mother that she would always protect Rachel, no matter what. She thought back to the day she had made that promise, the day Rachel was born.

* * *

_Jenny groaned as she sat down at the kitchen table, why was it always so hot during the summer in Virginia. She was thirsty, but she didn't want to get up, "Mom," she called wearily, shifting in her seat, trying to get comfortable._

_Cheyenne Burton came into the dining room to see what the matter with her oldest daughter was. "What is it dear?"_

_"I don't know, I can't get comfortable, and my back hurts. Mom, are you sure this is okay?"_

_Cheyenne immediately knelt before her daughter, "Of course I am, so is your father, even though he hasn't acted like he is."_

_"What'll happen if something happens to you?" Jenny was concerned and Cheyenne could see the worry in her eyes, there was something else there as well, but she wasn't sure what it was._

_"If anything happens to me, I want you to promise you'll take care of her, don't let her get hurt. Promise me."_

_Jenny nodded and shifted again, her eyes went wide and she looked at the floor, Cheyenne's eyes followed her and she said simply, "It's time."_

* * *

Sarah stopped her workout and sighed, she felt like she had just broken that promise she had made, sure she had only been thirteen when she had made it, but she had meant it with all her heart.

Chuck walked into the room again, "Sarah?" he said cautiously, just in case she was ready to pull out her knives.

Sarah turned to look at him and couldn't hold the tears back any longer; they began streaming down her face. Chuck had her in his arms in seconds. "I didn't keep my promise Chuck, I promised not to let her get hurt, but I did, who knows what Fulcrum will do to her." She sobbed into his chest.

Casey chose that moment to enter the room, he was about to say something smart-alecky when he noticed how broken Sarah was, "Orion wants you guys in there, he says Rachel sent a message and turned on her mic."

Sarah pulled away from Chuck and smiled at him, quickly drying her eyes she went to see what Rachel had said.

When she got there Orion was sitting at the computer with headphones on listening to Rachel. He motioned for Sarah to come sit next to him, he handed her a pair of earphones and she put them on.

"…_is one person I think you'd be surprised to find in California as well." _Sarah heard a man speaking; she then heard the door open and Rachel's breath catch in her throat. Sarah became worried; she wished she could see what was happening.

"_Maybe there'll be more leverage than I originally thought, torturing his girlfriend is good, but threatening his child may be even better."_ Sarah heard through the mic, and she thought her heart was going to stop, not Rachel's baby.

Rachel let out a strangled cry, _"Please no, don't hurt my baby, not my baby."_ Tears were falling down Sarah's face as she listened, she knew Rachel was trained to withstand torture, but she was still young and Sarah knew her first priority would be her baby.

"_Diaz, I swear, if you hurt Rachel or the baby, I'll kill you."_ Sarah guessed that it was Rachel's boyfriend and the father of the baby. She heard the hatred and determination in the young man's voice.

Sarah heard Diaz laugh and then a grunt from the young man, she assumed he had been hit, _"You're in no position to make threats. Take him away." _

Sarah heard the young man being taken out of the room and the sound of Rachel's sobs, _"Please, I don't mind getting hurt, just don't hurt my baby."_

_"I can't promise anything, I need his cooperation."_

_"What if I were to join you? I'm guessing you don't work for the government but that's okay. I can help with computers and I'll even try to get my sister to join, just don't hurt my baby."_ Sarah's heart skipped a beat, she didn't know what to think, and she didn't know if Rachel was serious or acting. She looked at Orion who pointed at the computer screen where her tracking device had once again shown up this time yellow. She saw the message from Rachel and sighed in relief. She listened as Diaz spoke again.

_"Amanda's already joined, but we can always use your help with computer things."_

_"I meant Jennifer, I'm sure if she knew me and Mandy were a part, she would help. I mean she doesn't really like the government I think, she and my dad were always on the run from the law seeing as my dad was a con man. I'm sure what with her knowledge of changing identities she could help you. Oh, she's real good at throwing a knife too."_

_"Well, that's not such a bad deal, you help us out, get your sister to think on taking the job, we won't hurt your baby, I can't say you won't get hurt, cause we still need information from your boyfriend."_

_"I should call Jenny then, let her know I'm okay right now and that you have a job offer for her."_

_"Give me five minutes and I'll let you call her."_ Sarah heard Diaz leave the room, her mind was spinning, she didn't know what to think, she wanted to help Rachel, but if she was caught, Chuck would be in danger.

_"Sarah please help me here, I don't want to lose this baby, Beckman, this plan stays."_ Rachel stayed silent and Sarah took off her headphones. She looked up and was surprised to see Chuck and Casey sitting there, they had been listening in too, and Orion had apparently taken his headphones out so they could listen.

"I don't know about this, Mr. Bartowski, what's your opinion?" Sarah looked up in surprise; Beckman had apparently heard everything too.

"Well General, you heard her. My thought is that she knows what she's doing." Orion said impassively.

"Yes, but…"

"General," Orion interrupted her, "She doesn't make plans often, and she doesn't often tell you what is going to happen, and you know that, but when she does, you need to listen to her."

Sarah was surprised to see Beckman nod her head resignedly, "Alright, we'll do as she asks. Agent Walker, you will answer the phone when she calls and agree to consider taking the job."

"What if I'm found out?" Sarah asked, "It would put the Intersect in danger."

"They don't know I'm the Intersect, otherwise they would have taken me instead of Rachel." Chuck said, "What if you were to put Sarah's status as back in DC, as if she's finished her assignment and is now going back. Have Casey's as pending reassignment as if he'll be leaving soon. Then they won't think of seeing why they were protecting me."

"Not a bad plan Bartowski." Casey said in apparent admiration of Chuck's plan.

"Yeah, that's a good idea Chuck." Sarah said, shooting him a smile.

"Alright Mr. Bartowski, we'll do that, Agent Walker, you're being reassigned, until this is over, do not contact anyone that could compromise your cover, Agent Burton will relay any pertinent information to us. That is all." Beckman abruptly disconnected the conversation and Team Bartowski sans Rachel and Bryce, who was busy elsewhere, were left in silence.

"So," Sarah said getting up and walking towards the stairs to leave, "I guess I should go; I'll see everyone after this is all over."

"Sarah," Chuck said getting up to follow her.

"No Chuck, you need to stay here, Rachel's gonna call me soon and I need to be prepared, I'll see you later." Sarah took the stairs leading to the Orange Orange two at a time as she held back the tears that were threatening to spill over, she hated hurting Chuck, but she had left her sister once, she wasn't going to do it again.

* * *

_"She's supposed to be coming with me!" Jenny exclaimed, tears streaming down her face as her mother took the 18-month-old blonde girl from her. "You promised."_

_"Jenny, you promised me you would do anything for her, remember?" Her mother asked. She nodded not able to say a thing as she sobbed, "She'll be safer here, not on the run with you and your father. It was your choice to go with your father; if you stay here you'll be with her."_

_"I know I promised mom, but I didn't think you'd ever separate us like this, mom, this wasn't the deal." Jenny was irate even through her tears._

_"Jennifer, this is for the best, she has to stay here, no matter where you want her to be."_

_"I can't stay here though, not after what happened." Jenny sobbed._

_"Well then you leave with your father and come visit whenever you're in town." Cheyenne said shifting the little girl to her other hip, she turned and began walking away._

_"No!" Jenny screamed trying to take Rachel from her mother, Jack Burton holding her back. "Rachel!"_

_Rachel lunged towards Jenny, "Mama, no, don't leave." Rachel began to cry as Cheyenne held her tighter._

_"Jenny, stop, you're scaring her." Cheyenne said, "Its okay baby, mommy's right here." Cheyenne tried to sooth the sobbing girl as her oldest daughter struggled against her father, screaming, "Get her out of here Jack, she's upsetting the baby, get her out of here."_

_Jack nodded and began leading Jenny away, "I hate you!" Jenny yelled at her mother, "I'll always hate you, you can't do this, you promised!"_

_Cheyenne held back tears as she listened to her oldest and youngest daughters cry for the other. Rachel had always clung to Jenny and Cheyenne knew that the next few weeks were going to be hard. She rubbed Rachel's back as the girl's wails began to quiet leading into silent body wrenching sobs. She smoothed the girl's curly blonde hair knowing that Jenny had every right to hate her and every right to want to take Rachel._

* * *

Her phone rang on her way back to her hotel; she answered it, "Hello?"

_"Jenny, it's me, Rachel."_

"Rachel, thank goodness, are you alright?" Sarah was genuinely worried but she knew that she had to amp up her concern in case she was being listened to.

_"I'm fine Jen; actually, I'm with Mandy."_

"I'm glad, how is Mandy? I haven't seen her in years."

_"She's fine, she's married."_ Sarah could tell that the excitement in Rachel's voice was fake, she was a good actress. _"Can you believe it? Mandy, married, she's the one that no one thought would ever marry, and here she is, married and a mother already."_

Sarah knew she had to act just as excited as Rachel, so she conjured up an image of Ellie excited and went with that. She squealed, "Mandy's married? Wow! Really, no one thought she'd be married, not even mom!"

_"I know, she has a daughter, she's almost three. Her name's Kara Elizabeth."_

"After Grandma," Sarah said, mentioning her mother's mother.

_"Yeah, Jenny, listen, I'm calling cause Jenny's husband wants to offer you a job, it's for an organization that's against the government, me and Mandy are a part of it and Marcel Diaz, Mandy's husband, thinks that the three of us would do well working together. He wants to meet with you in two days if you're willing to check it out."_

"Tell Marcel that I'm willing to meet with him, what time, and where?"

Rachel conversed with someone in the room with her, _"He says he'll send someone to pick you up two days from now in the Buy More parking lot at 8:30 am."_

"Okay, I'll be there. I'll get to see you right?"

_"Oh, yeah, he said after your interview you'll get to see me. I have to go now, I love you sis."_

"I love you too Rachel, I'll see you soon."

_"Okay Jen, Bye."_

"Bye." Sarah waited until Rachel had hung up before hanging up herself. She pulled into the parking lot of her hotel and into her parking space. Turning off her Porsche she sat in the front seat and began to sob again, another scene playing through her head.

* * *

_"You know Jenny; we don't have to do this."_

_"Yes we do, you're leaving tomorrow, moving away, I don't know if I'll ever see you again."_

_"We could always write each other."_

_"Yeah, but what if I move and lose your address or a letter gets lost in the mail, I think our best bet is to do this then go on with our lives."_

_"Alright, fine, we can do this, but you can't blame me for anything that happens, you know anything can happen around me."_

_Jenny laughed, running a hand through her boyfriend's dark curly hair, "Yeah, I know, but I want it," she placed a gentle kiss on his lips, "I really want it."_

* * *

Sarah shook herself, she couldn't think about that, it wasn't the right time to think about the boy she had thought she loved, the boy who's father had moved them across country after only a year in DC, a boy who reminded her so much of Chuck that it hurt.

* * *

_A/N: So, what'd you think? Is the plan going to work? Is the baby going to be okay? Is Chuck in danger? Who knows, well I do, but anyway. So here's the deal, I know I've got at least two reviewers, thank you **adc1248** and **Mindcheater** for leaving reviews, you guys are AWESOME!!! Now if anyone else wants a shoutout, I'm willing to give you one, if you can figure some stuff out. The first person to tell me what Sarah's first two flashbacks are implying will get a shoutout and a chance to give me a hand with the next chapter. The first person to tell me what the last flashback is implying and who or what it's referring to will also get a shoutout and a chance to help me. I'm hoping this will give you all a reason and want to review. So please, even if it's just to say good job, please press that little button and type a review, I even allow anonymous reviews, so please review. The next chapter isn't even started, but I know what I want to happen and it will definitely give some insight on who Rachel's boyfriend is. So as soon as I've written it and probably after I get back from celebrating my birthday, I'll have it up. Thanks for reading!_


	9. Chapter 9a

_A/N: Sorry it's taken so long to update, the last few weeks have been chaotic, first I went out of town for my birthday, I'm 16 now, YAY! Then I had to help out with my church's VBS, let me tell you, leading 30 kids ages 3-12 in songs and doing skits all morning for a week can really tire a person out.  
__Hey I wanted to thank all of you that reviewed, after the last chapter I was surprised by the number of reviews I actually got! Thanks you guys are totally AWESOME!!!! In the last chapter I asked for you guys to tell me what the three flashbacks were referring too. Well, here are the results: The first reviewer of the last chapter as well as being able to correctly identify what was happening in the flashbacks was **Alris **thanks! Second: first person to correctly identify what was happening in the first two flashbacks in a review, **Dwarfius** good job! And last but certainly not least, **Kroblues**, the first reviewer to correctly tell me what was going on in all three flashbacks in a review! Good job to everyone else who replied though, thanks!  
A special thanks goes out to **Wepdiggy **who was kind enought o beta read this chapter for me, there were a lot of mistakes this chapter and he was a really big help!  
This chapter was getting longer than I like it to be so I decided to post it in two parts, the next chapter will probably be like that too.  
Chapter 10 will be the end of this story, though I may do an epilogue depending on where the sequel starts. Thanks again to all of my great readers and reviewers it really makes my day to knwo that you guys are sticking with me in this_

_Disclaimer: I do not own Chuck, but I do own an Ipod Touch, thank goodness for birthday money! I tried to buy Chuck, but I didn't have enough money :(_

* * *

Chapter 9

**Fulcrum Base**

**Undisclosed Location**

**May 29****th**** 2009**

**1:10 PM**

"Here you go Rachel, call Jenny." Marcel said walking back into the room.

Rachel took the cell phone he had offered and punched in the number she had memorized over the past week.

_"Hello?"_ Sarah answered the phone and Rachel took a deep breath.

"Jenny, it's me, Rachel." She said a smile on her face for Marcel's sake; inside though, she didn't know if Sarah would agree to follow the plan.

"_Rachel, thank goodness, are you alright?"_ Rachel could hear genuine and fake worry in Sarah's voice, as if they were being listened in on.

"I'm fine Jen, actually, I'm with Mandy." She threw the last part out to gauge Sarah's reaction, just in case she hadn't heard earlier.

"_I'm glad, how is Mandy? I haven't seen her in years."_ Sarah's reaction was exactly the one Rachel had expected: fake excitement but there was also an underlying tone of hatred.

Rachel knew she had to up the slight excitement in Sarah's voice as she answered, "She's fine, she's married. Can you believe it? Mandy, married, she's the one no one thought would ever marry, and here she is, married and a mother already."

"_Mandy's married?"_ Sarah squealed in what Rachel thought was a perfect imitation of Ellie. _"Wow! Really, No one thought she'd marry, not even mom!"_

"I know, she has a daughter, she's almost three. Her name's Kara Elizabeth." Rachel mentioned her niece's name with a slight tinge of sadness.

_"After Grandma."_ Sarah said, catching the tone. Their grandmother had been special to both of them until she had died almost 10 years prior.

"Yeah, Jenny, listen, I'm calling cause Mandy's husband wants to offer you a job; it's for an organization that's against the government, Mandy and I are a part of it and Marcel Diaz, Mandy's husband, thinks the three of us would do well working together. He wants to meet with you in two days if you want to check it out." Rachel said looking over at Marcel who nodded in affirmation.

"_Tell Marcel that I'm willing to meet with him, what time, and where?"_ Sarah answered without hesitation.

Rachel felt relief knowing that Beckman and Sarah had agreed to her plan. She put her hand over the speaker of the phone and asked Marcel, "What time and where do you want to meet Jenny?"

"I'll send someone to pick her up from the Buy More parking lot, 8:30 am."

Rachel nodded and took her hand off of the phone, "He says he'll send someone to pick you up in two days from the Buy More parking lot at 8:30 am."

"_Okay I'll be there, I'll get to see you right?"_ Rachel heard the desperation in Sarah's voice and knew it wasn't faked; something was going on with Sarah.

"Oh, yeah, he said after your interview you'll get to see me," Marcel motioned for the phone, "I have to go now, I love you sis."

"_I love you too Rachel, I'll see you soon."_

"Okay Jenny, Bye."

_"Bye."_

Rachel hung up the phone and handed it over to Marcel. "There you go, she's coming for an interview, and I'm pretty sure she'll take the job. I've kept my end of the bargain, your turn." Rachel hoped Marcel wouldn't go back on his end of the deal.

"Of course, but I have one question, what do you know about retrieving information?"

Rachel smiled, this was her line of work, "Plenty, why?"

"We had a little setback about a month ago. A computer with important information was destroyed."

"Well what kind of computer is it?" Rachel asked, she was pretty sure she knew what he was talking about. The Intersect programming had disappeared from a secure CIA facility a few weeks earlier, which is why she guessed they were looking for Orion.

"I'll show you, if you're able to fix it, we might not need Orion." Marcel said coming around the table, he unlocked the cuffs and offered her his hand.

She took it graciously, "Well, that would be a good thing then wouldn't it? I'd rather avoid any pain if possible."

Marcel led the way out of the room, "You will be working for us, but until we have the information we need, either from you fixing the computer or us finding Orion we'll have to keep you locked up in one of the cells, but after everything's done, we'll give you the codes to get in and out of the rooms."

Rachel nodded and followed Marcel down the hallway keeping in mind every turn and any differences she could find. Finally he led her into a large room. Rachel's eyes lit up as she looked in the room, the room was filled with computers. "Wow." She breathed.

"There are plenty of computers here, and plenty of problems, are you sure you're up to the task of fixing them?"

Rachel nodded, "Now, where's this computer that needs to be fixed?"

Marcel pointed to a desk ahead of him, she saw something she hadn't ever expected to see, an Intersect Cube. They had made plans for it years before, but they had dismissed it because there were too many errors in the programming, because of that, they had also planned a way to retrieve its information.

"I remember working on something like this with my step-dad, we were trying to make it work, but there were too many errors, how'd you guys get this?" Rachel asked, even though she knew Orion had been responsible.

"Well, I guess your step-dad worked out the kinks," Marcel said, "He made this work."

"Then this'll be easier to fix than I originally thought." Rachel said, "We made a few prototypes of this, but the information ended up lost or erased, so we made a backup system, any time any information was added, it was backed-up in the cube. The only problem, I can't access it without A.L.R.I.S."

"And what's that?" Marcel said, clearly confused.

"It's the Analytic Logical Retrieval Information System. It's a completely different programming that will enter the cube and retrieve the information from it. It's almost like a backdoor, except, I have to program it from scratch using the programming system used in the cube, that could take a while."

"Well take all the time you need, unfortunately, we're going to have to try to get your boyfriend to talk, which means there will be pain, but we still need you to be able to work, so it won't be too terrible."

Rachel's heart sank, she knew what they would be able to do without hurting the baby, and that wasn't exactly something she wanted to happen. She nodded, "I understand I guess, I'm going to need my right hand though if you're going to have me working. Also, if you're going to torture me, can I please have one last night of fun? Please let me be with Brian tonight." She pleaded, knowing she sounded like an innocent little girl, and that was what she was hoping for.

Marcel nodded slowly, "Alright, fine, for the rest of today and tonight, we'll leave you and your boyfriend alone."

Rachel smiled, she was really looking forward to this; even if it was only to plan, she had really missed Brian.

Marcel led Rachel out of the computer room and back down the hallway. Before reaching the holding cell she'd been in earlier though, he turned down one of the side hallways. After walking down the hallway, he stopped at one of the doors, "Here you go." He said as he unlocked the door.

Rachel stepped inside; Brian was sitting on the bed inside the room facing away from the door. He didn't say anything as she walked towards him. She walked around and sat down on the bed next to him. "So, you gonna speak to me?" she asked him. He looked up in surprise.

"Rachel," he said, hugging her tightly and asked concernedly, "What are you doing here?"

"You mean other than the fact they're going to torture me to get you to talk?" She asked good-naturedly.

"Yeah that, speaking of talking, I'll talk, I don't want you to get hurt." He took her hand as he spoke.

She leaned into him and whispered, "Don't worry, I can handle anything they dish out, they promised not to hurt the baby."

"Why'd they do that?" He asked suspiciously.

She sighed and scooted closer, enjoying the feeling of just laying against him, something she hadn't done in months. She closed her eyes, knowing he was waiting for an answer, but she couldn't answer, not yet. "Don't worry about it," she whispered, "right now's not the time. I promise I'll tell you everything as soon as I can."

He nodded and kissed the top of her head, "So, he said something in there about you being pregnant."

Rachel nodded and placed her hand on her stomach, "Yeah, I am. I'm about three and a half months along."

"When're you due?"

"December 7th, or somewhere around there." She lifted her head and looked at him; she made a split second decision and hugged him tightly, maneuvering herself so that her mouth was next to his ear. "Listen, they're probably watching and listening to us right now, I said I'd join Fulcrum, but," She felt him stiffen so she quickly continued, "I'll explain everything later, right now, I just want to enjoy being with you, understand?"

He smiled and nodded, she watched as he lowered his head and began to kiss her, and she smiled against his lips, he understood perfectly.

* * *

A few hours later they were both laying on the bed entangled in each other. Rachel leaned over and whispered in Brian's ear, "Pretend to fall asleep, I promised I'd tell you what's going on and I will, but just pretend to be asleep, 10 minutes, no longer, promise."

She felt his breathing deepen as he closed his eyes, soon he was truly asleep, but she knew that waking him wouldn't be any problems. She turned over so that her back was pressed up against him, conveniently shielded from the camera. She pressed a button on her watch and it extended, she smiled, Orion was amazing when it came to inventing things.

Her watch was now a mini Orion wrist computer; she quickly keyed in some commands and closed her eyes, staying as still as she could. Ten minutes later the computer buzzed and she quickly keyed in another command, a few seconds later it buzzed again. She looked at the computer and smiled, she now had control of all the surveillance in the building, and that of her room was looped with a 10- minute loop to give them more time.

"Brian," she whispered in his ear, "You need to wake up, we have about 30 minutes before they figure out I looped them; maybe less if they decide to come in here while it's looped."

He woke up, clearheaded as she knew he would be, "What's going on Rachel, why did you tell Fulcrum you'd join them?"

"Alright, I know you have a ton of questions, but right now I need to talk to you without interruption in case they come in earlier than I expect." Brian nodded and she took a deep breath, letting it out as she began.

"I was 5 when mom remarried, you know that, and her new husband loved computers. Mom was out one day and Mandy was busy so Stephen took me with him to where he worked in DC. My step-father, Stephen Bartowski created the Intersect computer, which, when I was 8, became prominent in any and all CIA and NSA missions. It's amazing because it can see things that other computers can't. The pictures in the Intersect are all encoded with thousands of pictures within one picture. Stephen, along with a small team, created the Intersect. The day I went, they had run into some trouble which is why I was with him, he had to go into work. I was watching them work and found out what their trouble was, and I fixed it, and made it work better." Brian's eyes widened at this, he had heard about the Intersect, but he didn't know Stephen Bartowski had created it.

"Stephen began taking me with him whenever he worked on the Intersect, and I essentially built most of the original computer. When I was almost 7, we began working on a cube that would make the Intersect portable and more accessible to field agents. We ran into problems and the government told us to stop working on the cube after 9/11 and start trying to create a human Intersect program. The Omaha Project, The Intersect Project, whatever it was called, it was still a disaster, many agents died, or went crazy trying to upload it. The NSA and CIA decided to put agents in colleges to recruit possible candidates for the project. As they were doing this, Stephen and I decided to keep trying with the cube, we programmed a back door that all the information was saved on, no matter what happened to the cube, the information could be retrieved. The only problem was we had to write another program that corresponded with the Cube's programming to open the back door; we called the program A.L.R.I.S. Analytic Logic Retrieval Information System. It basically takes the files from the Intersect cube and holds them until they can be transferred to another computer."

Rachel took a deep breath and continued, " Anyway, during this time the government found a few people who they thought might be able to handle the intersect, Stephen, realizing it might not be such a good idea to try it without first testing it. He tested it on himself and it worked, it left him drained of all energy, but he retained the information. He had taken the test the recruits had been made to take to see what score they had to make in order to retain the information. Out of the 20 students that had been recruited, only 8 would have been able to retain the information. I was with Stephen one day while he was presenting his findings about the test scores to General Beckman and Director Graham; I was bored and was going through his bag he had left with me. Inside were a few copies of the test, I decided to take the test, and ended up with a perfect score, only I knew my score, I didn't tell Stephen because I knew he wouldn't let me test the Intersect on myself, but that was exactly what I planned on doing."

"Later that night, I snuck out of the house, yes I was only 9, but I was very sneaky, the CIA having recruited me to work as an asset the year before and giving me some field training. I went into our garage basement…"

"Wait, your garage had a basement?" Brian interrupted having listened quietly so far, but not believing that the garage he'd been in so many times could have a basement.

"Yes there's a basement, but I need to keep going, I know it's a lot to take in, but please, no more questions. As I was saying, I went into the garage basement where our computer lab was. There I uploaded the Intersect into my brain, the next thing I knew, Stephen was standing over me asking if I was okay. When I told him what I had done, he freaked out, really freaked out. A few weeks later I became a field agent, working as the only human intersect, because the government didn't know that Stephen was one, in all the agencies. Only five people knew though, General Beckman, Director Graham, Perseus, also known as Dr. Howard Busgang, Orion, also known as Stephen Bartowski, and Me, Cassiopea. The next year, Stephen heard that his son, Charles Bartowski, had passed the test with flying colors and was being considered for Project Omaha. Stephen contacted a friend of ours in the agency, his son's roommate, and asked him to keep his son out of the spy world. He left two weeks later."

Rachel checked her watch, 10 minutes had gone by, she maybe had 20 more, but she would try to wrap it up in less so that it wasn't discovered. "Now you asked how I could join Fulcrum and betray my country, I'm not, I promise. My plan is to pretend to join Fulcrum while promising to help them get you to talk, as long as they don't hurt the baby. The only way this plan will work though is if I have at least two agents as backup, so I told him I'd recruit my other sister, Mandy already being married to Diaz and a part of Fulcrum. So I called Jenny, the thing is, Jenny is the infamous Sarah Walker, the best agent in the CIA. She'll be arriving the day after tomorrow, to begin formulating a plan and putting together schematics for our team in Burbank. The rest of our team consists of two other field agents, an asset, and Orion. The field agents are Bryce Larkin, and John Casey, no interruptions, the asset, Charles Irving Bartowski, son of Stephen Bartowski, and the only other human Intersect. Orion of course, is Stephen Bartowski. They'll be behind the scenes putting a plan together so that we can take down this entire branch of Fulcrum."

"The other thing I'll be doing is fixing the Intersect Cube, Fulcrum was apparently able to steal it from Langley and bring it here. So I'll create another A.L.R.I.S after checking the Cube's programming, and retrieve the information, instead of giving it to Fulcrum though, I'll send it to Orion and download the new skills and information in this version. As soon as that's complete, we'll be extracted. Now here's what's going to be the hardest part for you, and I know it will be, they're going to torture me in any way possible without hurting the baby or keeping me from working on the Intersect. It's probably going to look like it hurts, and it probably will, but you can't give any information away, especially since you know the location of the Intersect, Orion, and Bryce Larkin, all things Fulcrum would love to have. So no matter what they do to me Brian, I want you to promise me you won't talk." She knew it wasn't smart to give him this information, but she needed him to know what she did, and she needed him to know the plan so that he could help with it. Of course she wasn't giving him the whole plan, the only people who had that were Chuck and Orion.

Brian exhaled slowly, "First I have questions."

"Alright, there's not a lot of time so I'll answer a few, one of which I know. John Casey is a Colonel in the NSA and one of Chuck's handlers."

"Alright, now here's another question. What in the hell were you thinking?" he said, "you're going to give Fulcrum their own Intersect, and how do you know you can trust Sarah Walker? The chatter I've been hearing over the last few months is that she went rogue with her asset, how do you know she won't decide she likes being rogue?"

"I know I can trust her because she's my sister, and she's the best agent in the CIA. I know she won't become rogue because even went she went AWOL with Chuck, she did it to protect him, and that's what we're doing here, she loves Chuck with all her heart. Now, promise me, no matter what you see or hear, because I'm sure I'll scream, you won't talk, please Brian promise me."

Brian sighed and pulled Rachel into a hug, "Promise," he whispered into her hair.

She smiled and turned her face up so that she was looking at him, he lowered his head and they kissed.

That night was the best night they'd ever had in their entire life. Rachel was glad because she knew the next morning, her determination and skills would be put to the test.

The next morning, Rachel was roughly awoken when a guard yanked her out of bed, the cold air hit her bare skin and she gasped involuntarily. She closed her eyes and summoned her courage because she knew she was going to need it. She stumbled as the guard grabbed her arm and forced her out the door and down the hall.

The room she was brought to had obviously been used before for torture; there were bloodstains on the floor and wall, as well as chains on the wall and hanging from a pipe in the ceiling. Rachel gave silent thanks that Alexis White had died earlier in the year; she had heard stories about Fulcrum's greatest "interrogator" and she was truly glad.

She went over the things she knew they would be able to do without harming the baby. Breaking bones would probably be one of their top choices, though cutting her arms as well as stabbing her arms, would be used. He breathing turned quick and shallow as she thought about everything they would try, the only other thing would be the worst, but she knew that even though naked as she was, it would be used as a last resort.

Marcel entered the room, "Chain her up," he said coldly, "Now, seeing as we need you to fix our Intersect, I need to know what hand is your dominant."

Rachel closed her eyes as she gathered her courage, even with that, her answer was no more than a whisper, "Right, I'm right handed." No sooner had she answered than she felt a searing pain in her left arm. One of the guards, an extremely muscular man, had snapped her arm in two in between her elbow and wrist, she screamed as pain shot up her arm continuously. She was hanging by her arms and so the pain was constant.

The next thing she felt was the whip striking her back, _"Whip,"_ she thought to herself, trying to concentrate on something else, even if it meant being sarcastic with herself, _"That's what I forgot, the whip, a favorite of Fulcrum interrogators."_ She heard herself scream as if she was watching it from somewhere else as she tried to think about anything but the pain. _"I hope I didn't make the wrong decision,"_ she thought, _"I really hope I made the right decision."_

* * *

**Sarah's Hotel**

**Burbank, CA**

**1:15 PM**

Sarah sat sobbing in her car, not able to get out, yet wanting to be inside where it was private. She didn't want to admit it, even to herself, but she finally did, she was scared, scared for Rachel, scared for herself, but most of all, scared for Chuck; she knew Rachel had a part for him in this plan that she hadn't mentioned yet, but it would soon come out.

She jumped as someone tapped on the window on the passenger side of the car. It was Chuck, she unlocked the door and he climbed in.

"I know, I know," he interjected just as she was about to speak, "You told me to stay there, but I couldn't, I had to make sure you were okay."

Sarah sighed, wiping her eyes, streaks still marking where the tears had fallen moments before. "That's no excuse Chuck, I told you that you had to stay there for a reason."

"Why, so that I wouldn't see you cry Sarah," Chuck reached over and traced the tracks of her tears with his thumb, "I'm your boyfriend Sarah, my job is to see you cry, and then make you feel better."

Sarah smiled, "You already have Chuck," it was true, she already felt lighter on the inside than she had before he had gotten in the car.

He smiled, his goofy smile that made Sarah's heart melt every time she saw it, "I'm glad, now, what was wrong, why were you crying?"

Immediately Sarah's eyes welled up with tears and she took a shuddering breath, "I'm scared for you Chuck, Rachel didn't give us her whole plan, and I'm pretty sure she won't tell us the rest until the time comes. I'm afraid you're going to end up in Fulcrum's hands." The tears spilled out and coursed down her cheeks unhindered, "I don't want to lose you Chuck, I can't lose you; I just got you."

"Hey, Hey," Chuck said leaning across the gearshift to press his forehead against Sarah's as he gently wiped her tears away with his thumb, "It'll be okay, Rachel knows what she's doing, she wouldn't put me in danger without a plan to keep me safe and get me out."

"The best laid plans of mice and men," Sarah mumbled closing her eyes and feeling Chuck's closeness. She quickly made a decision and before he could reply she leaned in further and kissed him gently on the lips.

He started and Sarah thought he was going to pull away, but he didn't instead he deepened the kiss. She felt his tongue trying to gain entrance to her mouth and she quickly gave way, and their tongues were soon exploring each other.

After a minute they pulled away breathless, Chuck leaned closer and began kissing down her jawline to her neck, she gasped as he hit a sensitive spot below her ear, she felt him smile and gasped as he kissed it again. Her breath began to come in short gasps as he kissed down her neck to her collarbone, "Chuck." She breathed leaning down to intercept his mouth, hands becoming entwined in his dark brown curls.

She kissed him deeply and began running a hand down his chest, she was surprised to feel hardened muscles underneath his shirt; she knew he had been working out ever since acquiring the new Intersect, but she didn't know that he'd put on that much muscle. He was responding to her kiss and began running his hand down her back to the hem of her orange tank-top. He began playing with and she pulled away.

"We have to stop, I can't go further, not yet." She said, slightly out of breath, "I wouldn't be able to concentrate in there with Fulcrum, my work would be shoddy, all I'd be able to think about was you and wanting to be with you, please understand Chuck."

Chuck nodded, "I do, I would probably turn my self over to Fulcrum if only to get to be with you."

"That's what I'm afraid of. Listen Chuck, I need to go get ready, Beckman's already put a notice in my file that I'm being reassigned to the UK on loan to MI6. I'm supposed to be out of LA in three hours. You're going to have to go home and tell Ellie that I was transferred to a different store. Chuck, if anything happens to me on this mission, I want you to take custody of Rachel, please, she needs to be with this team and if something happens, I need to know she'll be taken care of."

"Yeah, I will, promise. I love you Sarah Walker." Chuck said kissing her one more time on her forehead.

"I love you too Chuck," Sarah said back as he climbed out, "Save you later."

He smiled as he closed the door.

Sarah sat for a few more minutes before getting out of the car to get ready for her interview. Which included dying her hair light brown, _"Hey, I'll be brunette, wonder if Chuck'll like me more."_ The thought entered her head and she quickly quelled it, _"You can't think like that Walker, it'll get you and Chuck killed."_ She sighed, this was going to be a long assignment.

* * *

**En Route to Casa Bartowski/Woodcomb Burbank, CA**

**5:00 PM**

Chuck smiled as he drove home from work that night, he'd had to go straight to the Buy More after leaving Sarah's hotel and he'd just gotten off from work. As he'd been sitting at the Nerd Herd desk looking through the photos of Sarah on his phone, he'd come to a startling conclusion; he wanted to marry Sarah. He'd mulled over that thought all afternoon, and all his thinking had only cemented the idea in his head.

He had decided to get his mother's engagement ring from Ellie. He and Casey had come up with a cover story while there was a lull in activity in the Buy More, which ended up being all afternoon. Sarah had been transferred and she would be taking Rachel with her for a little while. Chuck knew that Rachel's plan was to have Chuck involved, and so the cover was for him to go pick up Rachel, his own personal agenda included asking Sarah to marry him once the mission was over.

"Hey Chuck," Ellie said as Chuck entered the apartment, she was still in her scrubs having just gotten home from work, Devon wasn't anywhere that Chuck could see. "How was work?"

"Fine, but I've got bad news."

"What is it?" Ellie looked worried.

"The Orange Orange is transferring Sarah out of state to oversee another store."

"Oh no, is she going to be coming back?" Ellie was truly saddened, she'd always loved Sarah like a sister and now with the knowledge they were step-sisters, she was terribly sad.

"I don't know," The thing was that Chuck didn't know, he was afraid that after this mission Beckman might decide to reassign Sarah, he hoped it didn't happen, but it was a possibility.

"What about Rachel?" Ellie said.

"She's already attached to LA, so Sarah's going to transfer custody to me, since I'm her step-brother. Until that's completed though, Rachel will be with Sarah."

"Oh, alright."

"Hey sis," Chuck said as his sister turned to leave the room.

"Yeah?" Ellie stopped, turning to look at Chuck.

"I was wondering if I could have mom's engagement ring." Chuck waited for the squeal, but surprisingly it didn't come right away.

"Yeah, fine." Ellie said in an offhanded way, I don't need it Devon gave me his grandmother's…" Then the squeal came, "You're going to ask Sarah to marry you?"

"Yeah, but seeing as she's leaving in the morning, I can't ask until later on when I go to pick up Rachel, it'll probably be a long distance relationship for a while then I'll either move to be with her, or she'll get transferred back."

Ellie squealed again and ran out of the room, moments later she returned, "Here." She handed him a ring box, inside was his mother's engagement ring, the ring Chuck and Ellie had found when they'd come home from school the day their mother left.

It was a gold diamond ring, normal except for the cut of the diamond. It was cut into a heart, something Stephen Bartowski said had drawn him to the ring in the first place. Chuck pulled it out and looked inside, there was an inscription on the inside. Chuck gasped when he read it, it said, 'Save Me Later'. It was perfect.

* * *

_A/N: Like I said, this is only the first half of the chapter, so keep your eye out for the second half within the next week, maybe by Wednesday, I don't know, we'll see. Review, review, review. I'm thinking a shoutout in the second half to the first person to review and the first person to figure out when my birthday was, I know, shameless, but I really want to see if you can figure it out. I'll give you a hint to the second one: It's in July, and it's in the 20's, other than that, no hints, the first person to guess my birthday will get to tell me something they'd like to see in chapter 9b, and the first person to review will get a shoutout! It's not that hard, just press that little green button, it's calling your name..._

_8/4: Oops forgot to mention that the quote Sarah says is from a poem by Robert Burns called "To A Mouse" Just wanted to let you know. The full phrase is: The best laid plans of mice and men, often go awry. Seems to fit their predicament, especially if the plan goes bad. Please review and tell me what you think!!! _


	10. Chapter 9b

_A/N: Thanks to all my reviewers! I was really glad to get to get all your reviews. Thanks to **PMoore **for being my first reviewer. Sadly no one was able to guess my birthday, but I'll let you try again until this story is finished, if no one can guess it before then I'll give a shout out to the reviewer closest to the date in the beginning of the sequel. A million and one thanks to my AWESOME beta **Wepdiggy**, you are so AWESOME weeding through all my million mistakes. This chapter was going to be posted without a beta because my computer's on the fritz and won't access wireless, thank goodness for relatives that have computers! :) This is the second part of chapter 9, I don't know when I'll post chapter 10, the whole computer on the fritz thing, but I'm hoping it'll be soon. But I'm starting school and a job next week so, my time to write will be considerably shorter. Now without further ado, except the disclaimer of course, I give you Chuck Vs. The Little Sister Chapter 9b_

_Disclaimer: I've gone out of town to get away before school starts and I looked for Chuck, but I couldn't find him, so I still don't own him or any of his affiliates :(_

* * *

**Buy More Plaza Burbank, CA**

**May 31****st**** 2009**

**8:25 AM**

Sarah leaned nonchalantly against the door of her Porsche. Her heart was beating erratically, and she took a few breaths to calm it down. She knew Casey was watching her from Castle, and she took comfort in that fact. Bryce and Chuck were probably there too. She could imagine Chuck's reaction at her new look. She had died her hair light brown to make her look more like the Jenny Burton, Mandy would remember.

"_Walker, there's a van turning into the parking lot right now, this may be them, be ready."_ Casey's voice came over the earpiece she was wearing; she nodded towards one of the cameras then took the earpiece out, turned it off, and put it into her pocket. She would put it back in once Fulcrum agreed to let her join.

She refrained from pushing herself off of her Porsche, as the van pulled up. The passenger door opened and a man got out, Sarah recognized him as Diaz, "Are you Jenny Burton?" He asked.

She nodded, "And you are?"

"Your brother-in-law, Marcel Diaz. Charmed I'm sure." He said extending his hand.

Sarah recoiled inwardly, he was flirting with her; she was appalled. She smiled though and laid her hand on his, "Nice to meet you Marcel. I'm looking forward to seeing what this job entails."

"Well then Jenny, come along." Marcel opened the side door to the van and helped Sarah in. She felt like she was being kidnapped even though she knew differently.

"_This is of your own free will Sarah, this'll help Rachel and her baby, also by extension, it'll keep Chuck safe." _Sarah began to argue with herself, her agent side and normal girl side locked in combat._ "Yeah right, you're betraying your country, good luck explaining that to the director of the CIA."_ Her agent side gave valid points, especially since they weren't ruled by emotions.

"_But you're on loan to the NSA right now, you're doing what Beckman told you to do, she's your superior right now." _Her normal girl side wasn't that bad at making valid arguments either, the time spent at Harvard really paid off. Surprisingly, her agent side didn't have anything to say, for once in her life, the normal girl had won out, she smiled slightly and closed her eyes. She knew it would probably be a long ride.

* * *

**Fulcrum Base **

**Undisclosed Location**

**10:00 AM**

Sarah opened her eyes and looked around. From what she could see, they were in downtown LA, having taken a roundabout way to lose any tails. The building they were parked in front of was tall and seemed to not be any particular company. The building and the ones surrounding it made up Summit Grove Office park. Sarah had heard of them; apparently they were pretty successful buying and selling office buildings or renting the buildings out.

Diaz led Sarah into the building they were in front of. "We're located downstairs, so please stick close."

Sarah nodded and followed Diaz down the stairs to a hallway that looked suspiciously like the one leading from Buy More to Castle. So she wasn't surprised when Diaz led her into an interrogation room that looked almost identical to Castle's.

"Sorry about the accommodations, interviews aren't really what we do here." Diaz said motioning for Sarah to sit across from him.

"What is it that you do here?" Sarah asked, hating the fake charm emanating off of Diaz.

"Fulcrum solves tomorrow's problems today. We live in a dangerous world and believe we ought to do something about it. The things we do aren't always in line with what the government believes needs to be done, but we do what we have to."

"So you do things that are illegal?" Sarah asked, acting as if she didn't care, though the thought was making her sick.

"Yes some of them are illegal, but we believe that it's for the good of the country. We consider ourselves patriots."

Sarah almost laughed at the irony of what Diaz had called Fulcrum. The Colonists back during the Revolutionary War that had supported the separation had called themselves Patriots. Not that Sarah didn't support Freedom; she wouldn't have accepted the job at the CIA if she hadn't. No, it was that the Patriots, in England's eyes, had been essentially domestic terrorists, which is exactly what the CIA and NSA considered Fulcrum.

"Like during the Revolutionary War."

"Yes, exactly, and we plan on being exactly like them, the winners."

"Well, I don't hold that much love for the government, so what would my job be?" Sarah began playing with her charm bracelet. Chuck had given her a new charm that had a small microphone in it so that her team could listen in, but she had to turn it on. Finally she saw the gem blink once showing it was on, Sarah was amazed with Orion's gadgets.

"Well, we would hope to use your, well your assets," Diaz looked pointedly at her chest and Sarah was glad she had chosen to wear one of her tighter, lower cut shirts. "We would use you to gather information and your sister told us that you were good with knives. We would also use you that way, is that alright with you?"

"Yes, that sounds fine to me, as long as you don't have problems with any methods I might use." Sarah felt sick, she hated that she might have to kill CIA or NSA agents in order to prove that she was truly a part of Fulcrum.

"Sounds good, now, we'll pay you well, and the more missions you are successful on, the more you'll make."

"That sounds fine to me. Now I believe you said that after all this was settled I could see Rachel."

"Of course, right this way." Diaz said, standing up and leading Sarah out of the interrogation room. Sarah followed him down a few different hallways until they came to a non-descript door.

"Now before I let you in here, you have to understand that what's going on in here is top secret. There are few people in this compound that know what's happening here. Your sister is actually in charge of the project, so of course she knows about it."

"Why are you going to let me know about it?" Sarah asked, wondering what was so top secret.

"Because I think that Rachel is going to need your help." Diaz opened the door and Sarah's eyes widened, the room was wall to wall computer screens.

"I'm not that good at computers," Sarah said as they walked in.

"That's alright I can lead you through anything I need you do." Rachel said walking up.

"Hey, how are you?" Sarah asked, looking Rachel over with a critical eye.

"Fine, I'm fine." Rachel said, with a half a smile. Sarah raised her eyebrows and Rachel looked down at her feet.

"Well, I'll go ahead and leave you two to get caught up." Diaz said turning to leave.

"Would you send our other sister in here, I'd love to see her again, it's been forever," Sarah said as he got to the door.

"Of course," Diaz said before exiting the room.

"The truth, now," Sarah said looking at Rachel.

"I'm fine, really. I've gone through this before. I can handle it," Rachel said turning and walking towards one of the computers.

"What'd they do to you Rache?" Sarah said grabbing her by the left arm.

Rachel winced, "Ouch!"

Sarah let go, "Sorry, how many places is that broken?"

"Three, it's dislocated too."

"You should really have that in a cast or at least a sling."

"What, are you a doctor now? I know that Jenny, but it's the only way to keep the baby safe. I'll be fine, promise, I've got a lot to do, are you going to help me or not?" Rachel asked, turning and walking towards one of the desks.

"Yeah I'll help, what are you doing?"

"Come here, I'll show you." Rachel sat down in front of a computer, "Here sit."

Sarah sat down next to her, "What are you doing."

"Trying to retrieve the information off of the Intersect cube, it's going to take me a while though 'cause I've got to write a whole new A.L.R.I.S. program to retrieve the info."

"What's an A.L.R.I.S. program?" Sarah asked, "I know a little bit about computers because of all the time I've spent with Chuck, but I've never heard of it."

"A.L.R.I.S. is something Orion and I came up with when we originally built the Intersect Cube. It's the Analytic Logic Retrieval Information System. It's a program we invented to access a backdoor we built into the Cube, as long as Orion put the backdoor in it should work."

"What do you need me for? I'll help however I can, as long as I can tie your arm up so that it's more supported."

Rachel smiled, "Worrywart, I'll be fine, promise."

Sarah laughed and shook her head, "You know, the whole secret agent thing gives a somewhat inflated ego."

"Somewhat, it's completely inflated." Rachel laughed and Sarah cocked her eyebrow, "Right now, just sit there and watch me, I can type one handed, not as fast as I'd like to, but I can, and actually I'll probably type with both hands, especially since I can keep my arm still while typing."

Sarah was about to answer when the door opened. "You asked to see me." Mandy said walking in carrying Kara, "Jenny, is that really you?"

"I take it your husband didn't tell you he was going to hire me." Sarah said turning towards her sister signing as she spoke, amazed at how easily she remembered how to sign.

"No he didn't, he forgot to mention that."

"Well, he did, and I've been hired, I guess the Burton girls are back together again."

"I guess so. Rachel, Marcel asked me to tell you that the doctor can't look at you today, but she'll check you over tomorrow after your session."

"Thank you Mandy, I'll be sure to remember that," Rachel said with a fake smile.

"So Mandy, who's this?" Sarah asked pointing at Kara.

"This is Kara Elizabeth Diaz, I named her after Grandma. Her birthday's the same as Grandma's."

"She's adorable, reminds me of you when you were little."

Mandy laughed, "Yeah, so, how've you been since you left with dad all those years ago?"

Sarah's face became very grave, "Fine, I haven't seen Dad since my senior year though since he got arrested."

"He got arrested?" Mandy asked.

"Yeah, apparently he ripped off some very influential people," Sarah said.

"Hey, look, I know you haven't seen each other in a long time, but I've got a lot to do and it's not that easy to figure out," Rachel said interrupting them. "I don't mind if you catch up with each other, but if you're going to be in here, I need you to be quiet."

The three girls laughed, "Alright, fine, I need to take Kara and feed her anyway, I'll talk to you later Jen," Mandy said and Sarah nodded. "Bye." Sarah waved and Mandy and Kara left.

"Now sit still, I'll tell you when I need you," Rachel said. Sarah sighed, as she sat there she tried to wrap her mind around the fact that Beckman had actually sanctioned a relationship between her and Chuck. For the next few hours she wondered why the General would do that.

* * *

**Fulcrum Headquarters**

**Summer Grove Office Park **

**Los Angeles, CA**

**July 2****nd**** 2009**

**1:30 PM**

Sarah had been giving Team Bartowski information on Fulcrum's missions for over a month now, and the team had been foiling all of Fulcrum's plans for the same amount of time.

"Ms. Burton, would you please come in here," Diaz said leaning out of his office as Sarah walked past.

"Of course." Sarah went in. "What do you need?"

"Well, as you know, the CIA has hindered all of our plans for over a month now; do you know anything about this?" Diaz asked.

"Of course not, why would I know something about that?" Sarah asked.

"I don't know, but, I wanted to know if you recognize the name Chuck Bartowski?"

"Umm…Yeah I do, wasn't that the name of Rachel's boss at the Buy More?"

"Yes, do you know who his girlfriend was?"

"Rachel may have told me, but I don't remember."

"Sarah Walker, the strange thing is, no one's seen Sarah Walker since we brought Rachel here. Do you know anything about that?"

"I'm assuming that since someone's been watching her that she works for the government." Sarah said.

"Of course, she's one of the CIA's top agents. She's been on one assignment for a long time and we didn't know why, but we figured out she was protecting someone that worked in the Buy More, then we figured out it was Chuck Bartowski. We still don't know why, but now that she's left, we wonder where she went."

"Why don't you hack into the CIA's database and see." Sarah said.

"Not a bad idea," Diaz said. He turned to his computer and typed some commands into his computer. "Interesting, she's been assigned to work overseas."

"Where?" Sarah asked, she was very curious as to where Beckman had "reassigned" her.

"Birmingham, UK, apparently she's been loaned to the MI6. Apparently she's been partnered with a Cole Barker."

"See, you don't have to worry about her anymore." Sarah seethed inside at Beckman's choice of partner for her, fake or not.

"I guess that's true. Thank you for helping me with that, oh, would you please escort your sister to me. She needed to speak to me about something."

"Of course, I'll be right back with her." Sarah stood up and exited Diaz's office. _"I wonder what Rachel wants to talk to Diaz about." _Sarah opened the door to the computer room and walked in. "Rache, Diaz said you wanted to speak to him, come on."

Rachel stood up and stretched, "Alright, Come on, let's go baby." She looked down at her stomach and rubbed it, the baby bump had begin to become more defined and was getting larger every day. "Here, feel Jen, she kicked!"

Rachel grabbed Sarah's hand and set it on top of her stomach, "What are you doing?" Sarah asked.

"Just wait a sec." Sarah looked at Rachel then she jumped, "See, she kicked again, isn't that cool! It's like the first time she's done it."

"That was cool. Why do you continue to say that the baby's a girl?"

"I'm not gonna call the baby an it. Come on, we don't want to make Diaz wait."

"Come on then." Sarah led Rachel out of the computer room and down the hall to Diaz's office.

"See you later Jen," Rachel opened the door and walked into the office, Diaz was sitting at his desk.

"You wanted to see me Rachel, what about?"

"I need to ask you something," Rachel said sitting down on the edge of one of the chairs.

"Go ahead, ask me anything," Diaz said leaning back in his chair, "I'm a little intrigued, seeing as you've refused to speak to me since I took away your visiting privileges with your boyfriend."

"I want to stop the torture because I'm afraid the baby's going to get hurt, so, I need help."

"Help with what?"

"Fixing your cube, there aren't that many people that are qualified to help me. Actually, besides me there are only four, one of them is dead, one is in jail, one is MIA, which leaves one person, Chuck Bartowski. I need Chuck Bartowski's help. I need you to get Chuck Bartowski for me."

Diaz paled considerably, "What's wrong Diaz, afraid of a Nerd Herder?" Rachel taunted.

"No, I'm not afraid of a Nerd Herder. But the NSA is still there protecting him for some reason."

"John Casey," Rachel laughed, "Ha, are you kidding me, you could distract him and take Chuck easily. Get John involved with trying to sell a Beast Master and he won't notice Chuck leaving, especially if Chuck has to go out on an onsite install. Give the Nerd Herd desk a call and have him come here for an onsite install. John won't even know he's gone until it's too late."

"Not a bad plan, I'll do that, though, there is one problem. I'm sure that John Casey has some type of tracking device on Mr. Bartowski, and probably in his car as well, what about that?"

"As soon as Chuck gets here take his car and drive it somewhere, probably your best bet would be somewhere far away. Then I'm sure you'll be able to either short out his tracking device or locate it and destroy it."

"That's true, good thinking Rachel. Now, I believe you had a visit to the doctors that needed to happen soon so that you can see that the baby's fine."

"Yes, that and maybe find out gender, we're not sure yet. I'll see you later Diaz, as soon as Chuck's here please bring him to me so that we can get to work." Rachel stood up and left before Diaz could say anything else. "I hope you heard that Chuck, you'd better be ready, and I hope your girlfriend doesn't get too mad at me when she finds out what happened." She mumbled into her watch. "I'll see you soon, if possible bring the notes I asked your dad to make for me about A.L.R.I.S."

With that she walked down the hallway, excited about finally finding out the gender of the baby.

* * *

**Buy More**

**Burbank, CA**

**July 3****rd**** 2009**

**10:30 AM**

Chuck groaned and laid his head on the desk, he was ready for the week to be over, luckily tomorrow was the 4th of July and he had the day off. He was looking forward to moping around his house. If Ellie got on to him for moping, he'd go to Casey's and mope there, ignoring Casey's meaningless threats.

Of course, if Fulcrum decided to capture him today, he wouldn't complain. He had heard Rachel's request and her plan and was on board with it, albeit a little nervous but on board all the same. He was actually looking forward to getting captured, though he knew that there was a great possibility that they would find out he was the Intersect. He didn't care, he couldn't wait to see Sarah.

The phone on the desk interrupted his thoughts, "Nerd Herd this is Chuck speaking."

"Hello, my company is having problems with the computer network we use. Is it possible to send out a Nerd Herd representative?"

"Of course, if you could just tell me where your office is located I'll be there in a jiffy."

"Our offices are located in Summer Grove Office Park, the Nottoli building, basement. It's in downtown Los Angeles."

"Alright, I'll be there as soon as I can." Chuck hung up the phone and gathered his kit; he looked around to find Casey. He was busy trying to sell a Beast Master, "Bryce, I think this is it," He said into his watch, "I'll be back in a few hours if it's not."

"Careful Chuck, we don't know anything about this operation except what Sarah's told us, and she doesn't know all of Rachel's plan, remember that."

"Rachel knows what she's doing Bryce. I trust her, and I trust Sarah to think on her feet and keep me safe." Chuck got into the Nerd Herder and started it up.

"Alright, we'll be monitoring your every move once Rachel's able to plant the bug on you, she'll keep you safe, and as soon as Sarah knows you're there, she will too."

"Ok, I'm leaving now; see you in a little while." Chuck pulled out of the Buy More parking lot and began to drive towards Los Angeles.

An hour later Chuck pulled up in front of the Nottoli building in the Summit Grove Office Park. He got out and walked inside, there was a man standing to the left of the door.

"Are you the Nerd Herd representative?" the man asked.

"Yes, I'm Chuck Bartowski, Nerd Herd supervisor, what seems to be your…" Chuck trailed off as he felt a sting, "Oh boy, that smarts." The man watched as Chuck fell to the ground, unconscious.

"Mr. Diaz, I've acquired Mr. Bartowski. What do I do with him?" the man spoke into a walkie- talkie.

"Good, I'll send someone up to take care of him, you just fine out where his tracking device is located, then take his phone and drive his car to the other side of the city, I don't care what you do with it, just make it look like he committed suicide."

"Roger that Mr. Diaz." The man said, he pulled out a small device and began searching for a tracking device, after a minute he took off Chuck's watch and took his phone. Then he exited the building and drove off in the Nerd Herd mobile.

When Chuck came to, he was lying in a cell on a cot. "Good you're awake." A voice from across the room said, "You feeling alright Chuck?"

Chuck tried to sit up, "No I'm not. My head is killing me!"

"It's the tranq darts, I told them I needed you cohesive, but did they listen? No, of course not; no one listens to the computer technician."

"Rachel, please don't, I really don't have any idea what you're talking about."

"Sorry, try getting up now."

Chuck tried to sit up and was pleased to find that his head didn't hurt anymore."

"Come on, follow me," Rachel said, standing up from the chair she'd been sitting in. "I need your help, and those papers."

"Right," Chuck said standing up and following Rachel out of the cell.

"Now, as far as I know, you'll have access to some of the rooms around here, your cell, the doctor's rooms, and the computer lab are all accessible by you. Any other rooms you go into you'll have to be accompanied by someone, not me. Either of my sisters, Jenny or Mandy, will be able to give you access to any of the rooms. You'll mostly be in the computer lab with me anyway."

"OK, nice to know, where is this computer lab?" Chuck looked over at Rachel.

She smiled and stopped, opening the nearest door she said, "Right here."

"Chuck walked in and stopped mouth agape, "Th…thi…this is beautiful. I've never seen anything like this."

"I know," Rachel's eyes lit up, "Neither had I, it is so…"

"AWESOME! Not to be clichéd or anything, but these computers are Awesome!"

"That's exactly what I was about to say."

"Okay, what did you need help with?" Chuck's eyes were still roving over all the computer screens as he asked.

"Come over here, I'll show you." Rachel led Chuck to where her work was spread out.

"Fulcrum captured the Intersect Cube from the CIA facility it was being held in, that's why they were looking for Orion. I've got the programming stuff down, there are a few things I still need done, that's why I needed the papers from Orion. What I need you to do though, is get the Cube in working condition again. It's got a few hard drive problems, and I have a few hard drives that you can take pieces from. I need you to fix that, think you could do that?"

"Maybe, I guess we'll just have to see huh?"

"Yup, alright, I'll take those papers and get to work on that here, and you can go sit somewhere and work on the cube, OK?"

"Sounds good, here are the papers." Chuck reached into his pocket and pulled out the papers for Rachel, "I'll go work on that."

Rachel took the papers and sat down at her desk leaving Chuck to do the same, they worked in silence for about 20 minutes, then the door opened.

"Rachel, you wanted to see me?" Sarah said poking her head in, totally overlooking Chuck.

"Yeah, I did," Rachel said looking up from her work, "I wanted to let you know that I found out the gender of the baby."

"Really? Awesome, what is it?"

"I'm having a girl; I'm going to name her after mom and you, Cheyenne Lisa Burton."

"That's a beautiful name," Sarah said smiling.

"Hah!" Chuck called from where he had been eavesdropping on their conversation, "I knew I heard you say your middle name was Lisa."

Sarah turned sharply, "Chuck! What the hell are you doing here?"

* * *

_A/N: There you_ _go, a cliffhanger ending! Okay now let's go ahead and ask some questions some of them will require searching the web for the answers, hopefully all will not. 1. Where is Summit Grove Office Park actually located? 2. Who owns it? There's a hint in the story if you look hard enough. 3. The Patriots were the name for the freedom supporters during the Revolutionary War, what were the English supporters called?_

_Okay first person to review will get a shout out, first person to answer all three questions right will get a shoutout and something they want to see in the sequel since I may have the chapter finished before I get my computer fixed. Lastly, the second and third people to answer all three questions correctly will get to try and answer some bonus questions, and the first one of them that gets all of the bonus questions correct will get a shoutout and something they want to see in the sequel._

_Now, press that little green button, come on, you can do it..._


	11. Chapter 10a

_A/N: Alright, to the only person who answered the questions last chapter **daydreamer2578** thanks for answering and I'll go ahead and give the answers so that I can curb any wnats to know, cause I know there are some curious people. To answer the first question, Summit Grove Office Park is located in Conyers, Georgia. The bonus question was, What well known place is Conyers close to other than Atlanta, the answer was Stone Mountain, and anyone who wants to know about Stone Mountain should google it cause it's really cool! Answer to the second question is: Ralph Nottoli, the bonus questions were, What is his wife's name and How many children and grandchildren does he have. The answer is Etta Nottoli and 3 and 10. And the last question was, During the Revolutionary War what were the English supporters called? (This may not be the exact wording, but this should have the exact wording.) The answer: Loyalists. The Bonus Question: What is the well known Patriot traitor's name? The answer is: Benedict Arnold. _

_My first reviewer this chapter was **Dwarfius** thanks for reviewing!_

_Lastly, because of my computer problem and the fact that my parents don't know I'm doing this so I have very little time to post chapters now, I wasn't able to run this past my beta, I do want to thank him vehemently for all the other chapters he's beta'd though and I really hope he reads this chapter to tell me what went wrong! Anyway I'm going to start on the sequel tonight most likely so hopefully I'll be ready to post the first chapter in that not to long from now, so now on with the chapter!  
_

_Disclaimer: I don't own Chuck, but we all knew that by now!

* * *

  
_

Chapter 10

**Fulcrum Headquarters**

**Nottoli Building, Summit Grove Office Park**

**Los Angeles, CA**

**July 3****rd**** 2009**

**12:57 PM**

Sarah turned sharply, "Chuck! What the hell are you doing here?"

Chuck cringed and smiled sheepishly, "I'm helping Rachel with the Intersect Cube since we can't…"

"Wait!" Rachel shouted as she hit a button on her watch. After a few seconds she said, "Okay, you're good."

Sarah looked confused until Rachel cocked her head up and she saw the video cameras. Sarah smiled and nodded at Chuck to continue.

"Listen Sarah, we can't risk exposing Orion and Rachel ran into a brick wall with the programming and needed help. She had to ask Diaz to come get me so that Orion could send her some papers on the Cube's programming."

Sarah turned on Rachel, "So you asked Diaz to bring my boyfriend, the Intersect, into the midst of Fulcrum's operation? Did you think this one through? Or did you have a lapse in sanity?!" Sarah was yelling by the end of her question.

Rachel looked at Sarah calmly and continued working on whatever she had in front of her at the moment. She didn't speak, only glanced up then back down.

"I asked you a question Rachel, I expect for you to answer me seeing as I'm your senior agent."

Rachel looked at Sarah again, this time with cold hard eyes, and Chuck from where he was sitting was scared. He ducked beneath the desk he was working at, closing his eyes he didn't see what happened next. Rachel looked back at her work and continued without speaking.

Sarah was livid at Rachel and she grabbed Rachel by the left arm, "I said answer me Agent Burton."

That was all it took, Rachel winced in pain and grabbed Sarah's arm quickly twisting it behind her back, Rachel using her left hand to push up on Sarah's elbow, "I wasn't going to answer you, because it doesn't concern you, but now I will, and you won't like it. Before I give you any answer though, take Chuck back to his room, then we'll talk."

Sarah's eyes were wide and wisely she didn't say anything except for, "Come on Chuck."

Chuck also wisely kept silent as he followed Sarah out of the room.

"Chuck, you said you flashed on Rachel when she first arrived, do you remember any of it?" Sarah asked as they walked down the hall.

Chuck brought up the flash and nodded, " I've got all of it, hold on." Quickly he accessed her files and flipped through them, amazed at what the new Intersect could do that the old one hadn't been able to, suddenly he stopped and looked at Sarah, "Sarah, you were wrong."

Sarah looked at Chuck, "What do you mean I was wrong?"

"When you said you were Rachel's senior agent, you were wrong."

"How is that?" Sarah asked, "I've been an agent longer and she's still a minor."

"OK maybe, but, does Director General of the DNI mean anything to you?"

"Yeah," Sarah said, not putting the pieces together yet, "General R.E.B. acting director of the CIA at the moment. Normally he doesn't act as the director for the CIA but since the President hasn't chosen anyone to take the job he has. Normally he directs both the CIA and NSA, he's under the Secretary of Defense and the President only in power. Why?"

"Alright, let's pretend for a minute here that this wasn't obvious and even Jeff could get that if he knew the whole story. What's Rachel's full name?"

"Rachel Elizabeth Burton, wh… R.E.B. how is that possible?" Sarah asked."

"I don't know, but if it's true then you just committed insubordination." Chuck began walking again then stopped, "Sarah you ok?"

Sarah was frozen in place, her face had gone pale and she was shaking slightly, Chuck made it to her right in time to catch her as she fainted, "It's okay Sarah, you'll be fine. He turned and was glad to see that they were right next to his cell, pulling out Sarah's identification card he swiped it and walked in, half-dragging half-carrying Sarah behind him.

He laid her down on the bed and started pacing the floor, hand in his pocket fingering the engagement ring, he didn't know if now would be the best time to propose, but he knew that everything else planned happened on a tight schedule.

"_Chuck, is everything ok?"_ Rachel's voice came through his earpiece, _"If it's not cough."_

Chuck coughed and Rachel laughed, _"Cough once if something's wrong with you, twice if something's wrong with my sister, and three times if someone else is in the room."_

Chuck coughed twice and he heard Rachel typing something, _"OK, surveillance has been turned off for about ten minutes, what happened?"_

"I don't know, she just fainted out in the hallway," Chuck lied, knowing exactly what had caused Sarah to faint. He looked over at her and was glad to see her eyes beginning to flutter open. "Hey I gotta go Rachel, Sarah's waking up, do you mind keeping surveillance down for a few hours? I have some things planned and I really don't want to be watched for any of it."

Rachel chuckled, _"No problem, as long as you plan on screwing my sister's brains out."_

Chuck laughed, "That and plenty more, later Rachel."

Chuck took his earpiece out to the sound of Rachel laughing hard. He walked over and sat down on the chair next to the cot. He took Sarah's hand and stroked his thumb along the back of it.

"Hey Sarah," he whispered stroking her hair with his other hand, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Sarah said, struggling to sit up, Chuck put pressure on her forehead and wouldn't let her get up. "Let me up Chuck, I have to go talk to Rachel."

"No you don't, I already talked to her, she's got the surveillance taken care of cause we need to talk."

"Can I sit up please?" Sarah asked, crossing her arms as she stopped struggling against Chuck's hand which was still on her forehead preventing her from moving.

"Only if you promise to stay still and listen to me."

Sarah looked at Chuck and frowned, resisting the urge to stick out her tongue, "Fine, I promise."

"Good," Chuck took his hand off of Sarah's head, she sat up, not removing her hand from his.

"What did you want to talk about Chuck?"

"Us, this mission, and anything else that's bothering you, tell me what to start with first."

"This mission, was this planned from the beginning? You didn't seem to mind that you were here, usually you'd be freaking out."

Chuck shifted in his seat, "Yes, I knew, Rachel relayed that part of the plan after you had already left the Castle, she didn't want you to know that's what she had planned. She knew that she would probably need help with a lot of the different things she'd have to do, especially if she ended up working on their Intersect, which she suspected she would be since they were looking for my father."

"So, when I was saying I suspected she was going to have you brought here you already knew you were going to be brought here."

Chuck nodded, "Yeah, I'm sorry, but I knew if I told you Rachel's plan you wouldn't go help her, she needed you to be there for her."

"Yeah I guess so. What about us? What did you want to talk about?"

"Sarah, let me ask you a question."

"Okay, as long as it's not will you marry me," Sarah joked.

Chuck's face fell and she realized that he had been planning to ask her that, even if he hadn't planned on that being his first question.

"Chuck just ask me your question, I promise to answer it truthfully."

"Okay, here goes. Sarah, is this really what you want?"

Sarah was confused, "What do you mean Chuck?"

"I mean, is this, our relationship, is it going anywhere, or are we going to be stuck in this fight, breakup, makeup cycle?"

"I don't know Chuck, I don't want to be stuck in that cycle, but it seems that we are."

"What do you want to happen?"

"I want it to work, I want us to be a couple."

"Then Sarah we need to fight for our relationship, not just give up every time things get rough. Sarah, in order to make this work, you're going to have to talk to me about what you're feeling, I'm going to have to work at it too, and not feel threatened by your job and not get jealous anytime Bryce or Cole or anyone else is around."

"I want to make it work Chuck, I really do," Sarah leaned over and gave him a soft kiss on the lips, "I promise I do."

"How long do you want this relationship to last Sarah?" Chuck pulled back, he hadn't asked the question he wanted to ask, and he wasn't sure if she was going to be receptive to him asking that question.

"I don't know Chuck, as long as it can. Chuck I know what you want to ask me, go ahead."

"Fine, Sarah Walker," Chuck slid down from the chair to one knee holding Sarah's left hand with his right and reaching into his pocket with the other hand, "Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife."

Sarah took the ring from Chuck and looked at it, not saying anything. "It was my mom's, she left it when she walked out on us. Look at the inside, I thought it was extremely ironic."

Sarah peered inside the band and gasped, it was ironic, the phrase she had said to Chuck when Longshore was about to take him a year and a half earlier echoed in her mind, _"Save You Later" _she had said, and the ring spoke almost from Chuck's perspective, 'Save Me Later'. It made her wonder if maybe his mother had been an agent as well, Orion's handler, reassigned after already having had children. It made her heart wrench to think of herself in a similar position, but then she thought about the chance to see Chuck's smiling face every day for as long as she could. She realized that even though there was a chance a large chance that once the General found out, she'd be reassigned, she couldn't imagine not being with Chuck for every day.

"Sarah are you alright?" Chuck asked worriedly wiping her face with his thumb and she realized she was crying.

She nodded, "Yes Chuck."

"Yes what?" Chuck looked confused, "yes you're okay or…"

"Yes I'll marry you Chuck Bartowski." Sarah gave the ring to Chuck and he slipped it on her finger.

"I love you Sarah Walker."

"I love you too Chuck," Sarah said as she leaned down and began kissing Chuck.

Soon both were lying in the bed ready for a night of passion. (a/n: sorry but I'm really, really, really, really, really bad at writing those kinds of scenes so I leave it up to the individual reader's imagination, now on with the story)

* * *

**Castle Base Burbank, CA**

**July 20****th**** 2009**

**12:00 PM**

"So Larkin, what's the plan so far?" Casey asked.

"Well, we go in like we're only checking for Chuck, not like we know he's in there. Rachel and Sarah will be in communication with us the whole time and as soon as we need help, they'll give it. Once we get Chuck, Sarah, Rachel, the Intersect Cube, Brian, Diaz, Mandy, and Kara out of there, we blow the place."

"Why do we need to worry about that many people? Why not just blow the place once we get our people out?"

"Because," Orion cut in before Bryce could answer, "Beckman wants Diaz alive so that you can interrogate him, and Sarah wants Mandy and Kara alive, even though she's sure that Mandy's Fulcrum, she's still her sister and Kara's her niece."

"So, once we've blown the place then what?" Casey asked, not bringing up the subject again.

"Well, the NSA cleaner team will move in then and make it look like a gas main blew, hopefully that'll go over smoothly with any civilians. We'll have one tactical team to back us up and as soon as we get inside Rachel and Sarah will start taking out Fulcrum agents."

Casey grunted, "See you tonight then."

Bryce nodded and went back to perfecting his plan.

* * *

**Fulcrum Headquarters**

**Nottoli Building, Summit Grove Office Park**

**Los Angeles, CA**

**7:30 PM**

Brian winced as he heard Rachel scream out once again, this was the third time this month that they'd broken her arm in the same place. He knew she could withstand the torture, but he was very close to giving in.

"See, here's the thing Agent Casey, if you don't tell us where Orion is, we'll kill the baby, and your girlfriend, she's expendable, we have another technician."

Brian strained at his restraints, seething at what Diaz was threatening, "You bastard, you promised her you wouldn't harm the baby!"

"I won't, but who's to say someone else won't when I leave this up to another person, someone who hasn't made any promises?"

"Don't you touch her!" Brian yelled, "I'll kill you if you do."

Rachel screamed again as they crushed one of her finger bones with a hammer. Brian could see she was shaking from exhaustion, they'd been going at her for almost two days now ever since hearing that Orion had been seen in the Los Angeles area. Brian knew that she wouldn't break, she was strong and it wasn't that bad, but he didn't know if he could watch this any longer, he closed his eyes.

"All you have to do to make it stop is tell me where Orion is." Diaz said.

Brian clenched his teeth, he desperately wanted to tell Diaz where Orion was, but he had made a promise to Rachel and he knew he had to keep it. "I can't, I've told you, I haven't heard from him in over 5 years, he could be anywhere."

Diaz shrugged, "Oh well then…" He trailed off as he listened to information that was coming over his earpiece. "Who? Where are they?"

All the sudden Brian heard gunshots from down the hall, he looked into where the torture had stopped momentarily because of the distraction, that was all Rachel needed. Swinging back and forth ignoring the pain in her arm she was able to wrap her feet around the man's neck in a choke hold, Diaz stared in astonishment as Rachel quickly broke the man's neck.

Using her toes she was able to retrieve the keys and unlock her handcuffs. Searching the man she found and took his gun. She raised it and pointed it at the mirrored glass separating her from Diaz and Brian. Brian, realizing what she was about to do, rocked his chair so that it fell to the ground, wrenching his shoulder in the process. The bullet hit the glass shattering it into a million pieces and Rachel continued shooting at Diaz.

Diaz quickly ran out of the room, avoiding the bullets, Rachel ran into the room, "Are you okay?" she asked as she picked up Brian's chair and cut the bonds.

"Yeah, you?" He asked, trying to inspect her arm.

"I'm fine, let's go. We've got to cover Chuck and Sarah while they retrieve the Intersect Cube as well as getting Diaz, Mandy, and Kara out of here before Casey goes trigger happy and blows the place early, speaking of Casey.

Rachel reached into her pocket and pulled out her watch, "Open the back cover for me would ya." Brian pried open the back cover as they continued making their way stealthily down the hallway in the direction Diaz had gone, and where Mandy was probably getting Kara ready for bed.

"Here." Brian handed Rachel the earpiece that was under the back cover.

"Thanks," Rachel inserted the earpiece. "Casey, I'm online, you guys got everything under control over there?"

"_We're good here." _Casey replied.

"What about you Agent Walker?"

_"We're good on this end, you'd be surprised at how good Chuck is with a gun."_

Rachel laughed, "Brian and I are after Diaz."

_"Alright, but be out soon, I'd like to blow this place in 20 minutes."_ Casey said.

"OK, we will." Rachel turned Brian, "Come on this way." She turned down one of the corridors and continued straight. "It looked like Diaz was headed towards his and Mandy's rooms, he's probably going to try to get her and Kara out through one of the tunnels. Hold on a second."

"Hey Dad, can you get me schematics for any escape tunnels and send them to my computer please?"

_"Sure thing, hold on a second."_ Rachel could hear Orion typing in the background. _"There you go."_

Rachel's watch vibrated as she took it from Brian, "Thanks." Quickly strapping the computer to her wrist Rachel typed in a few commands then turned around, "I know where he's going to go. Come on." She took off running, Brian not far behind her.

Soon they were outside the computer lab, Rachel held up her fist and Brian halted. She peeked around the corner just in time to see Diaz sneak up behind Chuck.

"Stay right where you are Agent, I don't know who you are, but I'll kill Mr. Bartowski if you don't let me and my family go."

Rachel saw Sarah freeze then she heard, "Marcel!"

Diaz turned and froze himself, and Rachel turned around in disbelief. Somehow, without Rachel noticing, Brian had snuck into the room and was holding a gun at Kara's head. It had been Mandy who'd cried out, scared for her daughter and afraid to shoot because Brian's finger was ready to pull the trigger.

"I don't want to have to kill your daughter, but you were threatening mine earlier, remember? I'm a father too, and even though my daughter hasn't been born yet, I know what you're feeling right now."

"You let my daughter go you monster." Marcel growled out, all suaveness lost in the face of losing his daughter.

"As soon as you let the asset go."

"Marcel, let him go, please, he'll kill her." Mandy cried, sobbing at the idea of losing her baby.

"I can't Mandy, I need him to get out of here."

"Let him go Diaz, or I'll shoot you." Rachel had positioned herself behind Diaz and had her gun leveled at him.

Diaz swung around so that Chuck was now shielding him from Rachel.

"Could everyone please stop using me as the human shield." Chuck said in a strained tone.

"You don't understand Diaz, I'll shoot you, then Brian will shoot you daughter, and I'm sure Agent Walker would shoot your wife, then we'd all walk away, blow the building and go out for something to eat."

"You're mistaken in one place there Rachel, Agent Walker, Jenny, whoever she is, will never shoot Mandy, she wouldn't be able to."

"I might not be able to shoot Mandy, but I'll be able to shoot you, let go of my fiancée." Sarah had moved in position and was about to pull the trigger.

Diaz pushed Chuck away from him and went to shoot Sarah, "NO!" Mandy cried coming out of nowhere flinging herself between her sister and her husband. Sarah hesitated, but Diaz had already pulled the trigger.

Mandy landed on the ground blood pouring out a hole in her chest. Diaz's expression turned to one of horror, "Mandy," he breathed, dropping the gun and running over to where she was lying.

"Drop the guns, Brian let her go." Rachel said, lowering her weapon, Sarah and Brian did the same.

Sarah and Rachel walked over to where Diaz was holding Mandy's body, "I love you Marcel, tell. Kara. I. Love. Her." Mandy's body went limp in Diaz's arms and he began to sob.

"Mommy?" Kara called, signing and speaking the word.

"Hey, it's okay baby." Sarah said, moving over to the little girl and picking her up. "Everything's going to be just fine."

"Casey we need you down here in the computer lab, need help with a body and a prisoner." Rachel said into her watch.

"Alright we'll be right there." Casey said, a few seconds later, Casey and Bryce came into the room. Chuck was still sitting on the floor dazed, but when Casey grabbed him and yanked him to his feet telling him to, "Shape Up Bartowski, we still gotta get out of here." He walked over to Sarah and held her as she sobbed, listening to the wails of the little girl in her arms.

Bryce tranqued Diaz and Casey dumped him over his shoulder. Bryce more gently picked up the lifeless body of Amanda Burton Diaz and carried her out of the room, Rachel, Brian, Chuck and Sarah holding Kara followed behind them.

* * *

**Castle**

**Burbank, CA**

**10:18 PM**

Sarah slumped exhaustedly at the table head in her hands, they had just finished the briefing with Beckman and Sarah had held it together. Beckman had disconnected though and Sarah had collapsed, she was exhausted and extremely sad about what had happened earlier that night.

They had tried to take Kara from Sarah, but the little girl had screamed in protest every time. Finally, they had allowed Sarah to take her for the night since she was the closest relative Kara had at the time. Ellie thought that Chuck, Rachel and Sarah were out of town so they were all going to spend the night at Sarah's hotel. Rachel and Kara were going to sleep in Sarah's room and Chuck and Sarah were going to take the room next door.

Chuck came behind her and began massaging her shoulders and neck, he didn't speak for a long time and Sarah relaxed so much she almost fell asleep. "You ready to go?" He whispered.

Sarah nodded and stood up leaning against him renewing her strength from his seeming never ending supply. "Yeah, let's go, I'll get Kara, you get Rachel."

Chuck nodded, "OK, Casey's gonna drive us, then he and Bryce will bring a car over tomorrow morning. We have the next 2 weeks off, Beckman wants us to recuperate from everything and Ellie doesn't expect me back before then anyway."

Sarah nodded and stood up, "Let's get going."

Chuck nodded and headed to find Rachel, he found her laying on the floor in the workout room fast asleep, arm cradled to her chest.

"I'll get her, you go start the Suburban, and Bartowski, if you somehow manage to mess it up, I'll put my foot so far up your ass that we'll never find it again, Understood?" Casey whispered.

Chuck gulped, nodded, and, taking the keys from Casey, left the room to go start the Suburban.

______________________________________________________________________________________

One hour later, Chuck was in the shower and Sarah was watching Rachel and Kara sleep. In regular day-to-day life, Rachel looked older than her 15 years, but while she was sleeping she looked more vulnerable and more like a little girl.

"Sarah?" Rachel stirred opening her eyes.

"Mmhmm?"

"Is it still the 20th?"

"Yeah, why?" Sarah wondered why Rachel was asking.

"No real reason, just wondering." Rachel closed her eyes and went back to sleep.

Sarah sat there for a few more minutes then realized the importance of the day and she chuckled. "Just like you, not wanting to call attention to yourself after a tragedy, Happy Birthday Rachel."

* * *

_A/N: Alright, so we're almost finished, I really wanted to finish this chapter with everyone happy, or somewhat happy for a while. Not sure what's going to happen to Kara, that whole thing was unplanned, but I liked the way it fit and it got them out of Fulcrum headquarters, so... Anyway, I've gotten the other part of this chapter written so I've decided to do something I've never done before, I want 10 reviews for this chapter alone before I will post the conclusion. As soon as I get those reviews I'll find a computer, probably my mom's which is what I'm using now, and post the next chapter. Let's get some reviews!!!!_

_Oh yeah, **daydreamer2578 **also guessed my birthday, it was a second guess, but she got it, she's only the second person to have guessed too! I'll let some other people guess before revealing it in the end of the next chapter._


	12. Chapter 10b

**Casa Bartowski/Woodcomb **

**Burbank, CA**

**September 20****th**** 2009**

**4:45 AM**

Sarah leaned over the toilet and emptied the contents of her stomach into the bowl. She groaned and rested her forehead on the seat. She had had this weird stomach bug for a month now, making her sick in the morning, but by the time lunch rolled around she was just fine.

"Sarah, are you alright?" Ellie asked as she knocked on the door. For the past month and a half, as Sarah supposedly got ready to move, she and Rachel had been staying with Chuck.

"Yeah I'm fine," Sarah called out closing her eyes and breathing deeply, trying to quell the nausea that was churning in her stomach.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah El, I'm fine."

"Alright, I'll be I'll be in the kitchen if you need anything; I have an early shift so I'll be here for a little while longer."

"Thanks Ellie," Sarah listened until she couldn't hear the sound of Ellie's footsteps anymore before she got up and left the bathroom. She walked back into Chuck's room and laid down in bed next to her fiancée, relaxing as she snuggled next to him.

Five minutes later she had almost fallen asleep when her phone began vibrating, it was the General, "Agent Walker secure."

_"Agent Walker, I need to speak with you in private, I expect to see you in Castle no more than 30 minutes from now."_

Sarah tried to say something but the General had already hung up. Sarah sighed and got back out of bed, she got dressed quietly and left the room. Ellie had already left and Sarah was glad she wasn't going to have to explain anything. She crept through the living room trying to not wake Rachel who was sleeping on the couch.

"Sarah, what's wrong?" Rachel asked, sitting up.

Sarah froze, "Nothing, Beckman just called, she needs to speak to speak to me in Castle, I'll be back later."

Rachel laid back down and closed her eyes, "See you later," she mumbled, asleep within seconds, the pregnancy and everything else that had happened to her; had been leaving her worn out by the end of the day.

Sarah looked at her for a second longer before quietly leaving the apartment. Once in the car Sarah relaxed and drove without really paying attention, trying to be as rested as she possibly could before seeing the General.

She arrived at the Orange Orange with a few minutes to spare. Unlocking the backdoor she made her way down into the Castle. A few minutes later the General's face appeared on the screen.

"Agent Walker, it's come to my attention that the asset asked you to marry him, is this true?"

Sarah was caught off guard, she and Chuck had been extremely careful not to let anybody, except Rachel and Ellie, know about the engagement. Keeping her features neutral she answered the General, "Yes it is."

"Is it also true that you accepted his offer." The General asked.

Sarah was nervous, she didn't know what to do, if she told the truth she'd probably be reassigned, but if she told a lie, she'd be reassigned because the General would think that Chuck wasn't going to be able to do his job correctly. She sighed and made her decision, "Yes General I did, I love Chuck and I feel that I can better protect him if both he and I know that."

The General's face became very grave, "Agent Walker, I'm going to have to reassign you, you know the rules and you broke them, a dating relationship is different from getting married. Your plane leaves in two hours, leave all personal belongings behind, tell no one that you are leaving, is that clear?"

Sarah fought back tears as she answered the General, "Yes, it is."

"Good then I expect to see you here at Fort Meade for your final debrief of this project at 3:15. That is all." The General shut off the correspondence and Sarah let the tears fall.

Slipping off her ring she set it on the table, _"I'm sorry Chuck, I wish I could have told you again how much I love you. Please don't ever doubt it."_ Seething inside at the unfairness of her job she walked through Castle remembering everything that had happened here. As she wandered absentmindedly she almost tripped over a book on the floor. She picked it up, it was one of Rachel's pregnancy books, she read the cover, "What to Expect When You're Expecting" Sarah flipped through the book and decided to take it with her so that she could see what Rachel would be experiencing over the next few months.

She knew that she could always sell the book or leave it at her apartment when she arrived in DC. Looking at her watch she saw that she had less then an hour and a half to get to the airport and on her plane. She made her way to the top of the stairs and stopped, looking back at Castle she sighed, _"Goodbye Chuck, I love you, and as soon as my contract's up, I'll be back, please wait for me."_

Turning she walked out of Castle and into the cool morning air, the sun was just beginning to rise as she made her way to her car. She started it and drove resisting the urge to look back, because she knew that if she did, she wouldn't be able to leave.

* * *

**Castle**

**Burbank, CA**

**2:30 PM**

Chuck entered Castle from the Buy More, hoping to eat lunch with Sarah like they'd done every other day since they'd finished their mandatory vacation. "Sarah," he called as he walked down the hall. All he heard was silence. "That's strange," he mumbled, wondering where Sarah could be. He pulled out his phone, no calls.

"Sarah?" he called again, this time louder, hoping she just hadn't heard him the first time. When she didn't answer him, he began to feel very uneasy, a pit beginning to form in his stomach. He began searching the rooms methodically for any sign of her. As he did he called Casey.

_"What?"_ Casey grunted when he picked up.

"Have you heard from Sarah?" Chuck asked, hoping that maybe she had gone out on a mission he didn't know about.

_"Not since last night, why?"_ Chuck could hear the small undertone of worry in Casey's voice and usually he would have said something snarky about Casey caring, but this time, he was glad Casey did.

"Because, I haven't seen her since last night either, she left early this morning for a briefing according to Rachel who said Sarah had all intentions of coming straight back." Chuck made his way into the main area of Castle, "I thought that maybe she'd had some reports to catch up on and had decided to stay and work on them but…" Chuck trailed off as he saw something on the table.

_"What is it Bartowski?"_ Casey asked when Chuck didn't continue, _"Did you find her?"_

Chuck shook himself and answered, "I gotta go Casey." He hung up to the sounds of Casey yelling at him not to hang up. He walked slowly to the table and picked up the object that had caught his eye. It was Sarah's ring. "Why Sarah? What happened? I thought you loved me." He thought, wishing Sarah'd had the decency to at least tell him she'd decided to ask for reassignment, he knew that's what had happened.

He sat down angry at Sarah for lifting his hopes and then dashing them and angry at himself for letting her. He stood up angrily, knocking the chair to the floor. He walked back into the workout room and began punching the bag, heedless of form or anything else, just needing to hit something, gradually, the Intersect took over, causing him to flash as he lashed out at the bag.

He was soon hitting the bag in a perfect form and rhythm, the Intersect providing new moves for him to perform and perfect. He was soon breathing heavily but didn't notice, as the Intersect continued taking him through the moves. All the sudden he was grabbed from behind and held firmly he struggled for a second, as he did though, he realized he had no strength so he stopped the flash and stopped struggling.

As his ears stopped ringing from the intensity and longevity of the flash he heard Casey calling him, "…Bartowski, you okay? Bartowski!"

"Fine Casey," Chuck moaned, all the sudden feeling dizzy.

"Good." Casey let Chuck go and he sat down hard, "Did you find Walker?"

"No," Chuck said, remembering what had caused him to flash in the first place, "She asked for reassignment this morning."

"Why do you think that?" Casey asked, "She seemed to want to stay with the team."

"Casey," Chuck stood up suddenly and began pacing, "I asked Sarah to marry me back when I first got taken by Fulcrum, she agreed. I think she had second thoughts and decided to ask for reassignment."

"Why do think that?" Chuck had to give Casey credit, he'd taken the news that Sarah had agreed to marry Chuck very well.

"What, no comments about the fact I asked Sarah to marry me?" Chuck tried to change the subject.

"I knew the minute you came back that you'd asked her, I could tell, the ring on her finger gave it away too."

"Really?" Chuck raised his eyebrows unbelievingly. He shook his head, "Well that ring's how I know, she left it behind."

Casey sighed, "Look, I have a feeling she didn't ask for reassignment, I think she was reassigned, if she'd asked for reassignment, she would have told me."

"You know that, why?" Chuck asked, continuing to pace.

"Because, we're partners and unless I don't know her like I thought, and that's a very small possibility, she would have had the decency to call me at least and tell me that she'd asked for reassignment."

Chuck stopped in his tracks and turned to face Casey, "So you think Beckman reassigned her?"

Casey nodded, "I do."

Chuck's face turned dangerously dark as he turned and strode purposefully out of the room. Casey stood watching him go then cursed under his breath as he realized what Chuck planned on doing. He growled and ran after Chuck reaching the large area of Castle a few seconds too late to stop Chuck from contacting the General via live feed.

The General was in the middle of speaking with an unseen person about the next assignment when Chuck cleared his throat, "General."

The General turned sharply, "Bartowski, I wasn't aware that we'd scheduled a briefing."

"We didn't General, but I had to ask you a question."

"I didn't know he was going to do this General," Casey said, elbowing Chuck, "Idiot." He whispered before turning back to the General, "I apologize Ma'am."

Chuck turned to Casey and narrowed his eyes before turning to speak to Beckman, "General, is it true that you reassigned Agent Walker?"

Beckman's eyes widened, "Why would you think that?"

"Because, she agreed to marry me."

"What makes you think that she didn't request reassignment?" Beckman's face was impassive and she turned to look at the other occupant of the room with a warning glance.

"Because, if she had requested reassignment General she would have had the decency to let at least me know." Casey said.

"Why do you think that Colonel?" Beckman wondered at the closeness of this team, at one time Casey wouldn't have been sticking his neck out for anyone, even his mother, but the asset had changed Casey. Now, Casey stuck his neck out for Chuck and the rest of the members of his team on an alarmingly frequent basis.

"Because, she's my partner and knowing her she'd have had the decency to let me know she was requesting reassignment, that's just the way she works General."

The General looked at Casey for a long moment, gauging her options before she sighed in defeat, "Yes I reassigned Agent Walker, but there's nothing more that can be done, I'm not sending her back. A replacement agent will be in Los Angeles by the end of the day. Now I have a debrief to handle."

"And just like that, she goes right back to being in charge." Chuck muttered angry at the General.

"Why don't you take the rest of the day off Chuck," Casey said, surprising Chuck with the softness of his tone. Usually Casey was so gruff and angry, but within the space a few minutes he'd been almost nothing but kind.

"Thanks Casey." Chuck didn't feel the need to tell Casey his plans since he knew his watch would provide his location at all times, and truth be told, he really didn't know where he was going. He walked out of Castle, got into his Herder, and drove away. For a little while he just drove, thinking about everything that had happened to him and Sarah since the first day she'd walked into the Buy More to have her phone "fixed".

After an hour of just driving he became aware of his surroundings, he stopped the car and got out to walk. He had somehow in all his ponderings made his way to the beach. He sat down in what he now considered their spot. The spot where he'd gone right after finding out what had been in the e-mail. The spot where Sarah had first asked him to trust her, and he had trusted her, with everything and he still trusted her to come back to him one day.

__________________________________________________________

Rachel watched from a distance as Chuck sat, staring out over the water, not moving for hours. It began to get dark and he still didn't move. She pulled out her phone.

_"Casey secure. What is it Burton?"_

"He's still here Casey, should I leave him alone or go talk to him?"

_"Leave him alone, he needs time to think, Beckman really screwed him this time."_

"Alright, if it gets to late though, I'm going to get him. I'll make sure he gets home safely."

_"Alright, I'll find a reason to go over and let his sister know that Sarah left, there's nothing else for it but to tell her she broke the engagement."_

Rachel sighed, wishing that they didn't have to tell Ellie this particular piece of information. "OK. See you later Colonel."

Casey grunted in the affirmative and hung up.

Rachel dialed another number.

_"Beckman secure."_

"Burton secure, what were you thinking? Do you have a plan?"

_"We do, it's not exactly what I would have wanted, I seem to have no choice in the matter."_

"Well, I hope it works out, because otherwise, you're going to have one unhappy, uncooperative asset." Rachel hung up, not wanting to deal with Beckman anymore, she sighed one more call left.

_"Davis secure."_

"Burton secure, so has Beckman let you in on her plan yet?" Rachel asked.

_"Nope, at the moment I'm having to pretend I know nothing about the Intersect project and I don't care that she's in charge of two of my operatives."_

"You'll figure it all out Jake," Rachel laughed, the new director for the CIA was Jacob Davis, an old friend of Rachel and Stephen Bartowski's. "Hey, I got good news, I found him; okay so his son found him, but I fixed it, completed A.L.R.I.S."

_"Really? Well, I'm glad, tell him I'm going to come visit."_

"That might be kinda hard. You know, with the whole CIA director thing, you'd have to go off grid for a few days and then reappear…" Rachel trailed off, "Never mind, you could handle it. See you sometime soon, oh, you should probably tell Beckman, she needs to know."

_"Alright, talk to you later, tell your dad hey for me."_

"Bye Jake." Rachel hung up the phone, she wished she had surveillance in Beckman's office, She was not going to be happy to know that the CIA director already knew about the Intersect project and would now be stepping in to help.

"This is going to be good." Rachel said to herself, and turned back to watch as Chuck stared across the water.

* * *

**Sarah's Apartment**

**Washington DC**

**2 PM**

Sarah had gone straight home from the airport making one small stop along the way. She knew she needed to be in Fort Meade by 3 so that she could keep her meeting with the General. Right now though she needed to do something else, hands shaking she took the box out of the brown paper bag. Heading into the bathroom she followed the instructions, after the timer went off she looked at the stick, it was blue.

Her breathing intensified and she took out another box, _"Just to be sure Sarah, you can't rely on just one."_

______________________________________________  
_

When she arrived at Ft. Meade an hour and 4 tests later she was sure, and she know knew what she was going to do to get back to Chuck.

The receptionist let her in and instructed her to take a seat. 15 minutes later the receptionist said, "The General will see you now Agent Walker."

Sarah thanked her and walked in, "Agent Walker, thank you for being prompt. Now I'm sure you know the reason you're here."

"I do, I'm guessing it has to do with the fact that the Intersect project is top secret."

"That's correct," The General leaned back in her chair, "In light of this fact I'm going to need you to sign a confidentiality agreement before we continue."

"Before we even get that far I have to let you know that I'm not going to let you reassign me. I'm pregnant and I'm not terminating this pregnancy."

Beckman sat up straight, "I'm assuming that the baby is Bartowski's, am I correct in assuming this?"

Sarah nodded, "You are General."

"You know the policy, you don't have to terminate the baby, but as soon as they are born you're going to have to put it up for adoption."

"Only if there's not another living parent, and there is." Sarah knew the General would try anything to keep Sarah away from Chuck, and to keep Chuck from knowing he was a father so she had come up with a plan.

"General, I know what we can do. I have the next 9 months off for maternal leave, so, let me go back to Burbank undercover as Katie O'Connel, a pregnant widow. Let Chuck get to know me and if asks me to marry him despite everything, let me tell him and let him keep the baby, if he doesn't before my leave is up, I'll let you put it in Foster Care until my contract is up."

The General was about to respond when the sound of a throat clearing made her turn sharply. "Bartowski, I wasn't aware that we'd scheduled a briefing."

_"We didn't General, but I had to ask you a question."_ Sarah gasped when she heard Chuck's voice.

_"I didn't know he was going to do this General,"_ Sarah heard Casey's voice, _"I apologize Ma'am."_

_"General, is it true that you reassigned Agent Walker?"_ Chuck's voice again and Sarah had to restrain herself from going to look at his face and tell him over and over that she loved him.

Beckman's eyes widened, "Why would you think that?"

_"Because, she agreed to marry me."_ Chuck said and Sarah smiled slightly.

"What makes you think that she didn't request reassignment?" The General turned and looked at Sarah, warning her to stay put and not make a sound before turning back.

_"Because, if she had requested reassignment General she would have had the decency to let at least me know."_ Casey said.

_"Thank you Casey!"_ Sarah thought.

"Why do you think that Colonel?" Beckman's face changed only slightly, but Sarah caught it and she knew that Beckman was thinking about the changes Casey had made, Sarah was too.

_"Because, she's my partner and knowing her she'd have had the decency to let me know she was requesting reassignment, that's just the way she works General."_ Casey answered the General and Sarah was amazed at how well he knew her.

The General looked at Casey for a long moment, gauging her options before she sighed in defeat, "Yes I reassigned Agent Walker, but there's nothing more that can be done, I'm not sending her back. A replacement agent will be in Los Angeles by the end of the day. Now I have a debrief to handle."

Beckman turned back to face Sarah, "I've though over your request and in light of this recent development with Bartowski, I agree to your request, you have nine months to get Chuck to propose to you. You're going to have competition, I'm guessing that you probably remember Heather Locklear."

"Yes I do, she's a good agent. I'm glad you're sending her, she'll do her best to protect Chuck."

"You're dismissed Agent Walker. Be ready to go back to Burbank in two weeks." Sarah turned to go, "Oh, and Agent Walker," she turned back to see the General smiling, "Good luck.

The End…for now

* * *

_A/N: Thanks to everyone who read this story, I was so happy to get all the positive feedback! I was glad to see that there were people that liked this story even though there have been some parts that made people a little confused, trust me, it only gets worse :), Sorry! Anyway just a short note, I know we didn't get to meet Jake Davis and Heather Locklear, but Heather will play a big part in the rest of the arc and Jake Davis will be around to make Beckman's life miserable! He was a character I came up when I was writing so I'm sure he'll be fun. Can't wait to read all the reviews I'm sure your going to leave! See you later!_


	13. Author

Okay, I know I promised a quick start to the sequel, but life had other plans. As I told you all, my computer is _**still **_not working and so I have to use my mother's computer to get on the internet. Also I started a college class in September that's thankfully almost over, but it's taken a lot of my time. The biggest issue though is that my family is in the process of moving from North Carolina to Alabama, and it's put my writing on indefinite hold until the move is over. Hopefully I'll be able write the first chapter of the sequel and post it after the new year, maybe by the time Chuck starts again January 10th! We'll see how everything turns out. Sorry for the wait, and sorry for the lack of communication on my part, but at least I've now let you know what's happening, right? Anyway, all my fellow authors keep up the good work and as soon as I get my Itouch back, I'll try and catch up on some of my reading.

Thanks for the reviews asking when I'm going to write again, I promise, the sequel will come!

Madje Knotts


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